43 Facts About Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

1.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela served as a Member of Parliament from 1994 to 2003, and from 2009 until her death, and was a deputy minister of arts and culture from 1994 to 1996.

2.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was detained by apartheid state security services on various occasions, tortured, subjected to banning orders, and banished to a rural town, and she spent several months in solitary confinement.

3.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission established by Nelson Mandela's government to investigate human rights abuses found Winnie 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.

4.

In 2003, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was convicted of theft and fraud, and she temporarily withdrew from active politics before returning several years later.

5.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was born in the village of Mbhongweni, Bizana, Pondoland, in what is the Eastern Cape province.

6.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was the fifth of nine children, seven sisters and a brother.

7.

Gertrude died when Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was nine years old, resulting in the break-up of her family when the siblings were sent to live with different relatives.

8.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela went on to become the head girl at her high school in Bizana.

9.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela held a number of jobs in various parts of what was then the Bantustan of Transkei; including with the Transkei government, living at various points of time at Bizana, Shawbury and Johannesburg.

10.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was 22 years old and standing at a bus stop in Soweto when Mandela first saw her and charmed her, securing a lunch date the following week.

11.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was involved in a lawsuit at the time of her death, claiming that she was entitled to Mandela's homestead in Qunu, through customary law, despite her divorce from Nelson Mandela in 1996.

12.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's case was dismissed by the Mthatha High Court in 2016, and she was reportedly preparing to appeal to the Constitutional Court at the time of her death, after failing at the Supreme Court of Appeal in January 2018.

13.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela Mandela emerged as a leading opponent of apartheid during the latter part of her husband's imprisonment.

14.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was subjected to house arrest, kept under surveillance, imprisoned, and banished to the remote town of Brandfort.

15.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's longest jailing was for 491 days, beginning on 12 May 1969, at Pretoria Central Prison, where she spent months in solitary confinement, and was tortured and beaten.

16.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela organised a creche with a non-governmental organization, Operation Hunger and a clinic in Brandfort with Dr Abu Baker Asvat, her personal physician, campaigned actively for equal rights and was promoted by the ANC as a symbol of their struggle against apartheid.

17.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela returned to Soweto from Brandfort in late 1985, in defiance of a banning order.

18.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela took a more militaristic approach, eschewing the approach of the newer bodies, and began dressing in military garb, and surrounding herself with bodyguards: the Mandela United Football Club.

19.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was implicated in at least 15 deaths during this time period.

20.

In 1988, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's home was burned by high school students in Soweto, in retaliation for the actions of the Mandela United Football Club.

21.

Sono's mother claimed that Winnie Madikizela-Mandela had labelled her son a spy, and had said she was "taking him away".

22.

In October 2018 a new biography of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela concluded that she had been responsible for the murder of Asvat.

23.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was found by the TRC to be responsible for the 1988 disappearance of Lolo Sono and Siboniso Shabalala.

24.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was seen on her husband's arm when he was released in February 1990, the first time the couple had been seen in public for nearly 30 years.

25.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela actively campaigned for the ANC in South Africa's first non-racial elections.

26.

In 2002, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was found guilty by a Parliamentary ethics committee of failing to disclose donations and financial interests.

27.

In 2003, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela offered to act as a human shield prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

28.

On 24 April 2003, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was convicted on 43 counts of fraud and 25 of theft, and her broker, Addy Moolman, was convicted on 58 counts of fraud and 25 of theft.

29.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela apologised to the victims of the riots and visited the Alexandra township.

30.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela offered her home as shelter for an immigrant family from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

31.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela warned that the perpetrators of the violence could strike at the Gauteng train system.

32.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela secured fifth place on the ANC's electoral list for the 2009 general election, behind party president Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa Kgalema Motlanthe, Deputy President Baleka Mbete, and Finance Minister Trevor Manuel.

33.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was a political patron of Malema, who was expelled from the ANC and later formed his own party, the Economic Freedom Fighters.

34.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela referred to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in his capacity as the head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, as a "cretin".

35.

On 14 March 2010, a statement was issued on Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's behalf claiming that the interview was a fabrication.

36.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela died at the Netcare Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg on 2 April 2018 at the age of 81.

37.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela suffered from diabetes and had recently undergone several major surgeries.

38.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela "had been in and out of hospital since the start of the year".

39.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was granted a "Special Official Funeral" by the South African government.

40.

Jennifer Hudson played her in Winnie Madikizela-Mandela Mandela, directed by Darrell Roodt, released in Canada by D Films on 16 September 2011.

41.

In 2007, an opera based on her life called The Passion of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was produced in Canada; however, she was declined a visa to attend its world premiere and associated gala fundraising concert.

42.

On viewing the film, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela told Harris it was "the first time she felt her story had been captured on film".

43.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela received a Candace Award for Distinguished Service from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women in 1988.