Winnie Madikizela-Mandela refused to bow. Now, South Africa will bow to her at state funeral

Divisive and defiant, Nelson Mandela’s ex-wife was regarded by many as the ‘mother of the nation’ – but her legacy is complicated by convictions for kidnapping, assault and fraud

Reading Time:4 minutes

A picture taken on April 13, 1986 shows Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, then-wife of South African president Nelson Mandela, addressing a meeting in Kagiso township. Photo: Agence France-Presse

Published: 2:24pm, 3 Apr 2018Updated: 8:44pm, 3 Apr 2018

Nelson Mandela’s ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, an anti-apartheid icon and activist in her own right whose reputation was sullied by scandal, will be honoured by a state funeral.

After her death on Monday at the age of 81, crowds of mourners flocked to her home in the heart of South Africa’s Soweto township, a centre of anti-apartheid resistance that remained her base decades after white rule fell.

Neighbours, supporters and passers-by sang and chanted at the gates of her modest two-storey red-brick home in the Orlando neighbourhood shortly after her death was announced.

In this January 22, 1986 file photo activist Winnie Mandela is cheered by supporters after appearing in the Krugersdorp Magistrate's court. Photo: AP

“I was friends with her mother for some time. I saw it on the TV just now and came here to check and was shocked,” said Constance Mokolobat, 89, a neighbour on Maseli Street.

Madikizela-Mandela, who succumbed to a long illness, remained embedded in the township community where she met Nelson Mandela at a bus stop in 1957.

In this file photo taken on December 08, 2013, Winnie Mandela Madikizela attends a mass in memory of her former husband, late South African president Nelson Mandela. Photo: Agence France-Presse

(Fin this file photo taken on April 19, 2009, former South African President Nelson Mandela is greeted by his former wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in Johannesburg at Ellis Park stadium. Photo: Agence France-Presse

“She was a good woman. When we had birthdays she would call us and when there were funerals she’d always go. When we had problems she would always help. The community was like family,” said college worker Elise Tsikhovi, 60, another neighbour.

But her legacy is far more complicated.