SOUTH AFRICAN liberation movement icon Winnie Madikizela-Mandela died today aged 81 after a long illness.

Dubbed “Mama Winnie” and “Mother of the Nation,” Winnie Nomzamo was working as the first black woman social worker at Baragwanath Hospital when leading ANC activist Nelson Mandela was introduced to her by his close comrade Oliver Tambo.

She was just 21 and he, at 39, already had a life of struggle under his belt and was one of 156 accused at the mammoth Treason Trial which collapsed, leading to all the accused being acquitted.

However, the subsequent Rivonia trial saw Nelson Mandela sentenced to life imprisonment and his young wife, with two daughters, thrust into the limelight during decades of brutal apartheid dictatorship.

She was projected, with ANC leadership approval, as the voice of the movement, clad in ANC colours and challenging courts, police, imprisonment, internal exile and everything the regime could throw at her.

Winnie Mandela displayed the best and the worst of herself as she became an implacable opponent of apartheid but also ran the movement with a rod of iron through the so-called Mandela United Football Club, including the killing of 14-year-old activist James “Stompie” Sepei.

She remained popular with ANC grassroots, was re-elected ANC Women’s League president and returned as an MP.

However, she also attacked her by then ex-husband as having “let blacks down” and, after his death, sought a share of his inheritance.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was both admired and reviled, but her role in confronting the apartheid regime assures her place in history.