Winnie Mandela

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, a prominent anti-apartheid activist and wife of the first democratically elected president of South Africa, late Nelson Mandela is dead.

She was 81

Winnie, popularly called the Mother of the Nation in South Africa stayed in Soweto, the black township southwest of Johannesburg.

Family spokesman Victor Dlamini said in a statement: “She 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.”

She was a trained social worker when she met her future husband in the 1950s. They were married for a total of 38 years, although for almost three decades of that time they were separated due to Mr Mandela’s imprisonment.

Despite their separation two years after his release, and their divorce in 1996, she kept his surname and maintained ties with him.