Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, ex-wife of the former South African leader Nelson Mandela who was a great political leader, who fought for the rights of black people in the country, died at the age of 81, her family confirmed in a statement on Monday.
Madikizela-Mandela was along with her husband in the apartheid and a key figure in the fight. She was married to Nelson Mandela during his incarceration at the notorious Robben Island prison.
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In the statement released Monday, Madikizela-Mandela’s family said she had “died after a long illness, for which she had been in and out of hospital since the start of the year. She succumbed peacefully in the early hours of Monday afternoon surrounded by her family and loved ones.”
The statement remembered her as “one of the greatest icons of the struggle against Apartheid. She fought valiantly against the Apartheid state and sacrificed her life for the freedom of the country.”
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Her supporters called her “the Mother of the Nation,” she became a member of South Africa’s parliament but the scandals saw her sharply criticized by the African National Congress party, which leads the country and which her late ex-husband led for years himself after his release from prison. Winnie Mandela and Nelson Mandela separated in 1992 and were formally divorced in 1996.