Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, anti-apartheid activist and 'Mother' of South Africa, dies at 81
JOHANNESBURG - Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the former wife of Nelson Mandela who died in Johannesburg on Monday, was revered by many in South Africa as the "Mother of the Nation," but criticized by others over a brutal apartheid-era killing by her thuggish bodyguards.
A contentious figure dogged by controversy, she was also a prominent anti-apartheid activist and politician. Madikizela-Mandela died in a hospital after being admitted with a kidney infection. She was 81.
Born in the village of Bizana in the Eastern Cape to parents who were teachers, she moved to Johannesburg and graduated from college as a social worker. She married Mandela in 1958, six years before he was sentenced to life imprisonment for treason.
She campaigned relentlessly for Mandela's release
