First Ladies Duniani: Winnie Madikizela Mandela

Monday 23 September 2013

Winnie Madikizela Mandela

Winnie Madikizela - Mandela is a South African politician who has held several government positions and headed the African National Congress Women's League. She was born Nomzamo Winfreda Zanyiwe Madikizela on 26 September 1936 in the village of eMbongweni, Bizana, Pondoland (now Eastern Cape Province).

Winnie Mandela married Nelson Mandela, former South African president and anti-apartheid revolutionary politician in 1958. The couple separated in 1992 and their divorce was finalised on 19 March 1996.

Despite restrictions on education of blacks during apartheid, she earned a degree in social work from the Jan Hofmeyer School in Johannesburg, and several years later earned a Bachelor's degree in international relations from the University of Witwatersrand.

Winnie and Nelson Mandela have two daughters, Zenani who was born in 1958 and Zindzi born in 1960.

Winnie Madikizela - Mandela emerged as a leading opponent of the white minority rule government during the later years of her husband's imprisonment (August 1963 - February 1990). For many of those years she was exiled to the town of Brandfort in the Orange Free State and confined to the area, except for the times she was allowed to visit her husband at the prison on Robben Island. Beginning in 1969 she spent eighteen months in solitary confinement at Pretoria Central prison.