Buhari, SA President, Desmond Tutu, Others Mourn Winnie Mandela
President Muhammadu Buhari says Africa has lost a courageous woman with the death of South-Africa’s anti-apartheid icon, Mrs Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
Describing her passing away at age 81 as a huge loss to the continent, President Buhari said the deceased was a woman of uncommon determination, steadfastness and perseverance.
In a condolence message by his Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu in Abuja, the President noted that Winnie held aloft the torch of the struggle against institutionalised discrimination even while her ex-husband, the late Madiba, President Nelson Mandela was incarcerated.
On behalf of the government and people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Buhari, commiserated with the family of the deceased, the government and people of South Africa.
He urged them to be consoled by the knowledge that her contributions to ending apartheid will not be forgotten.
According to him, the late Winnie remained a pride not only to the African woman, but indeed all Africans.
He therefore prayed that God Almighty would comfort all those who mourned the departed and grant her soul eternal rest.
Also in his tribute, South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa, whom Mrs Madikizela-Mandela praised earlier this year, called her as a “voice of defiance” against white-minority rule.
“In the face of exploitation, she was a champion of justice and equality,” Ramaphosa said in a televised address on Monday.
He described her “as an abiding symbol of the desire of our people to be free”.
For retired Archbishop and Nobel laureate, Desmond Tutu, late Winnie was a “defining symbol of the struggle against apartheid”.
“Her courageous defiance was deeply inspirational to me, and to generations of activists,” he added.
South African Energy Minister, Jeff Radebe, reading out a statement on behalf of the family, paid tribute to “a colossus who strode the Southern African political landscape”.
“As the ANC we dip our revolutionary banner in salute of this great icon of our liberation struggle,” he said.
“The Mandela family are deeply grateful for the gift of her life and even as our hearts break at her passing we urge all those who loved her to celebrate this most remarkable South African woman.”
Similarly, African National Congress (ANC) chairperson, Gwede Mantashe said: “With the departure of Mama Winnie, [we have lost] one of the very few who are left of our stalwarts and icons. She was one of those who would tell us exactly what is wrong and right, and we are going to be missing that guidance.”
South Africa’s pride and joy – and my neighbour: Analysis by Milton Nkosi, BBC News, Johannesburg
I knew Winnie Madikizela-Mandela personally. We come from the same neighbourhood in Soweto.
To many, she was the pride and joy of the nation, an icon in her own right – never mind the fact she was Nelson Mandela’s wife.
Mrs Madikizela-Mandela was also the first black social worker in the country. Her love and desire to help those in need was always burning from deep inside.
But she was not nothing but sweet talk. She met the brutality of racial segregation with fire. Each time the police came to arrest her at her home in Orlando West, she held her own.
She never gave in. Not one inch – and sometimes, this landed her in trouble. As anti-apartheid activist Mosioua Lekota noted in her defence: “Those who did nothing under apartheid never made mistakes.”
She will be remembered for her fight against an inhumane system, rather than for the mistakes she made in that fight. – With agency reports
