Thousands of mourners crowded into a stadium in Soweto, near Johannesburg, where Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the late former wife of Nelson Mandela was given a high-level burial. Her casket was draped in the national flag, and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered the eulogy.
Mrs Madikizela-Mandela, died earlier this month at the age of 81. A controversial figure, Mrs Madikizela-Mandela was lauded for her role in the anti-apartheid struggle. But she was later shunned by the political elite for endorsing punishment killings for government informers.
In Winnie’s daughter’s words:
“It is so disappointing to see how they withheld their words during my mother’s lifetime, knowing very well what they would have meant to her. Only they know why they chose to share the truth with the world after she departed,” Mrs Mandela-Dlamini said.
South African President Ramaphosa described Mrs Madikizela-Mandela as a symbol of resistance who laid bare the edifice of patriarchy.
The president said:
“I’m sorry, Mama, that your organisation delayed in according you its honour, to this point in time and moment. As president, I will propose that we award you the highest order of our movement, you richly deserve to be awarded.”
There were loud cheers when the radical Economic Freedom Fighters leader; Julius Malema paid tribute to Mrs Madikizela-Mandela.
Mrs Madikizela-Mandela was a social worker when she met her husband, who was then a prominent anti-apartheid campaigner, in the 1950s.
They were married for a total of 38 years. For almost three decades of that time, they were separated by Mr Mandela’s long imprisonment. They had two daughters together.
After Mr Mandela was imprisoned by the apartheid regime, Mrs Madikizela-Mandela became an international symbol of resistance to apartheid. She too was jailed for her role in opposing white minority rule.
To her supporters, she became known affectionately as “Mother of the Nation”. But Mrs Madikizela-Mandela also found herself mired in scandal for decades. She was accused of conducting a virtual reign of terror in parts of Soweto by other members of the ANC in the late 1980s, and in 2003 she was convicted of fraud.
