Johannesburg sources stated that Winnie Mandela, the former wife of South African anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, died today at the age of 81 after a long illness. Meanwhile the spokesman Victor Dlamini said in a statement that Winnie Mandela, who was married to Nelson Mandela for 38 years, played a high-profile role in the battle to end white-minority rule but her place in history was also stained by controversy.
Dlamini, a family spokesman said "She died after a long illness, for which she had been in and out of hospital since the start of the year and she succumbed peacefully in the early hours of Monday afternoon surrounded by her family and loved ones." Meanwhile most of Winnie's marriage to Nelson was spent apart, with Nelson imprisoned for 27 years, leaving her to raise their two daughters alone and to keep alive his political dream under the repressive white-minority regime.
Sources reported that her reputation came under
damaging scrutiny in the twilight years of apartheid rule. Earlier in 1986, she
was widely linked to "necklacing", when suspected traitors were burnt
alive by a petrol-soaked car tyre being put over their head and set alight.
