TRIBUTE
The struggle to give back to the African people their sense of dignity was led by Nelson Mandela and his wife Madikezela- Mandela. The death of Madikezela has led to a leadership crisis in South Africa.
The New Leam Staff
Winnie Madikizela Mandela has passed away on Monday afternoon after a prolonged stay in the hospital. She was 81. She was the wife of Nelson Mandela and a leader of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. In South Africa she is regarded as the mother of the nation.
She worked against racism and the oppression of her people.Madikezela-Mandela was one of the greatest leaders of the people’s struggle against apartheid. She worked against the apartheid state and sacrificed her life for the freedom of the country and helped to give the struggle for justice in South Africa one of its most revered leaders.
She was born in a poor Eastern Cape Province and worked as a social worker with a hospital there. During her husband’s 27-year incarceration, Madikizela-Mandela campaigned for his release and for the rights of blacks in South Africa.
For husband and wife, it was a moment of achievement when centuries of white domination came to the end and when Mandela became South Africa’s first black president. But for Madikizela-Mandela, the end of apartheid began legal and political troubles that accompanied by stories of her affluent living, kept her in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
She and Mandela separated from each other in 1992 and her reputation became worse further when he sacked her from his cabinet in 1995 after allegations of corruption. The couple divorced a year later.
The contribution of Winnie Madikizela will be recalled by all the people who spoke and lived their lives against racial discrimination. The work that she and her husband did to give back to the African people a sense of dignity can never be forgotten.
