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Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela OLS MP(born Nomzamo Winifred Zanyiwe Madikizela; 26 September 1936[1] – 2 April 2018),[2] also known as Winnie Mandela, was a South African anti-apartheid activist and politician, and the second wife of Nelson Mandela. She served as a Member of Parliament from 1994 to 2003,[3] and from 2009 until her death,[4] and was a deputy minister of arts and culture from 1994 to 1996. A member of the African National Congress (ANC) political party, she served on the ANC's National Executive Committee and headed its Women's League. Madikizela-Mandela was known to her supporters as the "Mother of the Nation".[5]

Born to a Mpondo[6] family in Bizana, and a qualified social worker, she married anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg in 1958; they remained married for 38 years and had two children together. In 1963, after Mandela was imprisoned following theRivonia Trial; she became his public face during the 27 years he spent in jail. During that period, she rose to prominence within the domestic anti-apartheid movement. She was detained by apartheid state security services on various occasions, tortured,[7] subjected to banning orders, banished to a rural town, and spent several months in solitary confinement.[8]

In the mid-1980s Madikizela-Mandela exerted a "reign of terror", and was "at the centre of an o**y of violence"[9][10] inSoweto, which led to condemnation by the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa,[11][12][13][9] and a rebuke by the ANC in exile.[14][15] During this period, her home was burned down by residents of Soweto.[16] The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) established by Nelson Mandela's government to investigate human rights abuses found Madikizela-Mandela to have been "politically and morally accountable for the gross violations of human rights committed by the Mandela United Football Club", her security detail.[5][17] Madikizela-Mandela endorsed the necklacing of alleged police.

Sarah Obama the grandmother of Ex-U S president has died.