Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Anti-Apartheid Activist, Dies At 81

April 2, 201810:37 AM ET

GREG MYRE

COLIN DWYER

NPR News

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela waves as she attends the 54th ANC National Conference in Johannesburg late last year.

Mujahid Safodien/AFP/Getty Images

Updated at 12:15 p.m. ET.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the wife of the late South African leader Nelson Mandela, and a leading anti-apartheid figure in her own right during the country's most turbulent years, has died at age 81.

The ruling African National Congress, to which both Mandelas belonged, said in a statement that she died Monday in Johannesburg "after a long illness, for which she had been in and out of hospital since the start of the year."

Madikizela-Mandela was "one of the greatest icons of the struggle against apartheid," the ANC said.

During the 27 years Nelson Mandela was in prison, Madikizela-Mandela was one of the most outspoken critics of South Africa's white government.

She was most visible in the 1980s, when she was renowned for revving up crowds of young, black activists with her fierce speeches denouncing the country's comprehensive system of racial segregation.

As she raised the couple's two young daughters, she was frequently harassed by the government, which at various times put her in prison, placed her under house arrest, banished her to a remote town and kept her under constant surveillance. She and her daughters were rarely allowed to visit Nelson Mandela in prison.

In a 2004 interview on The Tavis Smiley Show, Madikizela-Mandela said:

"I probably would have never turned out to be what I am today had it not been the viciousness of apartheid. No human being with any honor and pride could have stood by and be a spectator and witnessed the horrors of apartheid without protesting. You had to fight for your dignity."

Yet she also became a polarizing figure mired in repeated controversies.

The most serious was in 1998, when her team of hand-picked bodyguards abducted and killed one of its own members, 14-year-old James "Stompie" Seipei, accusing him of being a government informant.

Madikizela-Mandela denied involvement in his death, but was eventually convicted of his kidnapping. She was sentenced to prison, but it was later reduced to a fine.

Nelson Mandela leaves prison hand in hand with his then-wife, Winnie, upon his release in 1990.

Alexander Joe/AFP/Getty Images

Nelson Mandela was released in 1990 and walked out of prison with Madikizela-Mandela at his side, both raising clenched fists as black South Africans celebrated nationwide.

Mandela then led the negotiations with the white government that would lead to the end of apartheid — and his election as president — four years later. Meanwhile, Madikizela-Mandela continued to play a leading role as an activist, frequently appearing at rallies.

But the couple's relationship was clearly strained and they separated in 1992. They divorced in 1996, while Mandela was serving as the country's first black president.

While she remained popular, particularly among young blacks, her reputation at the national and international level suffered from repeated controversies.

In 1998, the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, headed by the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rev. Desmond Tutu, found Madikizela-Mandela "politically and morally accountable for the gross violations of human rights" during the 1980s due to the actions of her bodyguards, who were formally known as the Mandela United Football Club.

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Winnie Madikizela-Mandela returns to the town of Brandfort, where she had been banished by the white government for nine years, to visit local children in 1986.

Gideon Mendel/AFP/Getty Images

Madikizela-Mandela held a number of prominent positions in the post-apartheid era, serving as a member of parliament, and head of the African National Congress Women's League.

But she was convicted of fraud in 2003 and continued to make controversial statements. In 2010, she was quoted in an interview as saying that her former husband had "let blacks down."

The ANC asked her to explain the comments, and issued a statement on her behalf claiming the interview was a fabrication.

In a statement Monday, the ANC said Madikizela-Mandela "dedicated most of her adult life to the cause of the people and for this was known far and wide as the Mother Of The Nation."