Winnie Mandela

Nomzamo Winifred Zanyiwe Madikizela-Mandela, widely called Winnie Mandela, was a South African politician and anti-apartheid activist who also became known as the second wife of Nelson Mandela. Born on 26 September 1936 and dying on 2 April 2018, she served as a Member of Parliament from 1994 to 2003 and again from 2009 until her death, and held the post of deputy minister of arts and culture from 1994 to 1996. A member of the African National Congress (ANC), she sat on its National Executive Committee and led its Women’s League. Her supporters referred to her as the “Mother of the Nation.”

She was born in Bizana, trained as a social worker, and married Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg in 1958. The marriage lasted 38 years and produced two children. After Mandela was imprisoned following the Rivonia Trial in 1963, she became his public representative during the 27 years he spent behind bars. Over that time, she gained prominence within the domestic anti-apartheid movement. Authorities detained her repeatedly, tortured her, issued banning orders against her, banished her to a rural town, and placed her in solitary confinement for months.

In the mid-1980s, Madikizela-Mandela was described as leading a “reign of terror” and being “at the centre of an orgy of violence” in Soweto. This drew condemnation from the anti-apartheid movement inside South Africa and a rebuke from the ANC in exile. Residents of Soweto burned down her home during this period. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), set up by Nelson Mandela’s government to investigate human rights abuses, found her “politically and morally accountable for the gross violations of human rights committed by the Mandela United Football Club,” her security detail. She endorsed the necklacing of alleged police informers and government collaborators, and her security detail engaged in kidnapping, torture, and murder—most notoriously the killing of 14-year-old Stompie Seipei, whose kidnapping she was convicted of.

Nelson Mandela was released from prison on 11 February 1990. The couple separated in 1992 and divorced in March 1996. She visited him during his final illness. As a senior ANC figure, she participated in the post-apartheid ANC government but was dismissed from her post amid corruption allegations. In 2003, she was convicted of theft and fraud, temporarily withdrew from politics, and returned several years later. A biography titled *Winnie Mandela: A life*, written by Anné Mariè du Preez Bezdrob, was published in 2003.

**Early life and education** Her Xhosa name was Nomzamo. She was born in the village of Mbhongweni, Bizana, Pondoland, in what is now the Eastern Cape province. She was the fifth of nine children—seven sisters and one brother. Her parents, Columbus and Gertrude, were both teachers. Columbus, who had a white father and Xhosa mother, taught history and served as a headmaster; Gertrude taught domestic science. Madikizela-Mandela became head girl at her high school in Bizana. After leaving school, she moved to Johannesburg to study social work at the Jan Hofmeyr School of Social Work, earning a degree in 1956. Decades later, she earned a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of the Witwatersrand. She held several jobs in various parts of the former Bantustan of Transkei, including with the Transkei government, and lived at different times in Bizana, Shawbury, and Johannesburg. Her first job was as a social worker at Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto.

**Marriage to Nelson Mandela** She met lawyer and anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela in 1957, while he was still married to Evelyn Mase. She was 22 and standing at a bus stop in Soweto when Mandela first saw her, charmed her, and secured a lunch date the following week. They married in 1958 and had two daughters: Zenani (born 1959) and Zindziswa (born 1960). Mandela was arrested and jailed in 1963 and remained imprisoned until 1990. The couple separated in 1992 and finalized their divorce in March 1996 with an unspecified out-of-court settlement. During the divorce hearing, Nelson Mandela rejected her assertion that arbitration could save the marriage, citing her infidelity as a cause and stating, “I am determined to get rid of the marriage.” Her attempt to obtain a settlement of up to US $5 million (R70 million)—half of what she claimed her ex-husband was worth—was dismissed when she failed to appear in court for a settlement hearing. Asked in a 1994 interview about the possibility of reconciliation, she said: “I am not fighting to be the country’s First Lady. In fact, I am not the sort of person to carry beautiful flowers and be an ornament to everyone.” At the time of her death, she was involved in a lawsuit claiming entitlement to Mandela’s homestead in Qunu through customary law, despite their 1996 divorce. The Mthatha High Court dismissed her case in 2016, and she was reportedly preparing to appeal to the Constitutional Court after failing at the Supreme Court of Appeal in January 2018.

**Apartheid: 1963–1985** During the later years of her husband’s imprisonment, Winnie Mandela emerged as a leading opponent of apartheid. Her political activities led to regular detention by the National Party government. She was placed under house arrest, kept under surveillance, imprisoned, and banished to the remote town of Brandfort. Her longest imprisonment lasted 491 days, beginning on 12 May 1969 at Pretoria Central Prison, where she spent months in solitary confinement.