Winnie Madikizela Mandela Has Died At 81

Nelson and Winnie Mandela.

“There is no longer anything I can fear. There is nothing the government has not done to me. There isn’t any pain I haven’t known.”
Winnie Mandela – 1987

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was the former wife of South Africa’s first black president Nelson Mandela, has died at age 81. Born to a Xhosa family in Bizana, in the then Union of South Africa, she studied social work at the Jan Hofmeyr School. In 1958, she married anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg; they remained married for 38 years and had two children together. In 1963, Mandela was imprisoned following the Rivonia Trial; where she became his public face during the 27 years he spent in jail. During that period, she rose to prominence within the domestic anti-apartheid movement. A controversial figure, Madikizela-Mandela retained a level of popular support within the ANC and was known to her supporters as the “Mother of the Nation.” Conversely, she was reviled by others for having personally been responsible for the murder, torture, abduction, and assault of numerous men, women, and children, as well as indirectly being responsible for an even larger number of such crimes.

Her reputation was damaged by such rhetoric as that displayed in a speech she gave in Munsieville on 13 April 1986, where she endorsed the practice of necklacing (burning people alive using tyres and petrol) by saying: “With our boxes of matches and our necklaces we shall liberate this country.” Further tarnishing her reputation were accusations by her bodyguard, Jerry Musivuzi Richardson, that she had ordered kidnapping and murder. On 29 December 1988, Richardson, who was coach of the Mandela United Football Club, which acted as Mrs. Mandela’s personal security detail, abducted 14-year-old James Seipei (also known as Stompie Moeketsi) and three other youths from the home of a Methodist minister, Rev. Paul Verryn, claiming she had the youths taken to her home because she suspected the reverend was sexually abusing them. The four were beaten to get them to admit to having had sex with the minister. Seipei was accused of being an informer, and his body later found in a field with stab wounds to the throat on 6 January 1989.

Winnie Mandela.

In 1991, she was acquitted of all but the kidnapping. Her six-year jail sentence was reduced to a fine on appeal. The final report of the South African Truth and Reconciliation commission, issued in 1998, found “Ms Winnie Madikizela Mandela politically and morally accountable for the gross violations of human rights committed by the MUFC” and that she “was responsible, by omission, for the commission of gross violations of human rights.”  In 1992, she was accused of ordering the murder of Dr. Abu-Baker Asvat, a family friend who had examined Seipei at Mandela’s house, after Seipei had been abducted but before he had been killed. Mandela’s role was later probed as part of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, in 1997. She was said to have paid the equivalent of $8,000 and supplied the firearm used in the killing, which took place on 27 January 1989. The hearings were later adjourned amid claims that witnesses were being intimidated on Winnie Mandela’s orders. 

When the ANC announced the election of its National Executive Committee on 21 December 2007, Madikizela-Mandela placed first with 2845 votes. In January 2018, the University Council and University Senate of Makerere University, in Kampala, Uganda, the top-most academic and administrative organs of the university, approved the award of an honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) degree to Winnie Nomzano Madikizela-Mandela, in recognition of her fight against apartheid in South Africa. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela died at the Netcare Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg‚ South Africa. Her death was confirmed by her personal assistant, Zodwa Zwane. The cause of her death was a “long-term illness”, according to her family. The USA Magazine reported: “Mandela was admitted to the Netcare Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg over the weekend after complaining of the flu. Her spokesperson said in a statement to the state broadcaster that Winnie who also suffered from diabetes and recently underwent several major surgeries, ‘had been in and out of hospital since the start of the year.'”

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