“FIGHTING SPIRIT”
During Mandela’s 27-year incarceration for his fight against apartheid, Madikizela-Mandela campaigned for his release and for the rights of black South Africans undergoing detention, banishment and arrest.
“I appreciate many things about her. She represents a fighting spirit because, even though she lived through the apartheid era, she never gave up,” said 20-year old college student Gift Mokale. “I’m very grateful to be here today.”
Also present at the funeral service were former presidents Thabo Mbeki, Kgalema Motlanthe and Jacob Zuma, dignitaries from African countries and celebrities such as British supermodel Naomi Campbell and U.S. civil rights activist Jesse Jackson.
For many South Africans, the most memorable image of Madikizela-Mandela is of her punching the air in a clenched-fist salute as she walked hand-in-hand with Mandela out of Victor Verster prison, near Cape Town, on Feb. 11, 1990.
For husband and wife, it was a crowning moment that led four years later to the end of centuries of white domination when Mandela became South Africa’s first black president.
Madikizela-Mandela’s legacy, however, was later tarnished.
As evidence emerged in the dying years of apartheid of the brutality of her Soweto enforcers, known as the “Mandela United Football Club”, some South Africans questioned her ‘Mother of the Nation’ soubriquet.
In 1991, Madikizela-Mandela was convicted of kidnapping and being an accessory to assault, but her six-year jail sentence was reduced to a fine and a two-year suspended sentence on appeal.
Writing by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo; Editing by Kevin Liffey
Article Appeared @https://www.reuters.com/article/us-safrica-winninemandela/south-africas-anti-apartheid-heroine-winnie-mandela-laid-to-rest-idUSKBN1HL0LF