Jemal Countess / Getty / for Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100
Johannesburg – Zindzi Mandela, the youngest daughter of South Africa’s first black president and anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, passed away at age 59, announced Monday President Cyril Ramaphosa. Daughter of Mandela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, she was the South African ambassador to Denmark at the time of her death.
“Ambassador Mandela passed away in the early hours of today, July 13, 2020, in a Johannesburg hospital,” Ramaphosa said in a statement.
The cause of his death was not immediately disclosed.
She had been appointed to become a South African envoy to Liberia after her stint in Copenhagen, which began in 2015.
She was born and raised in Soweto and educated both at home and in neighboring Swaziland.
Zindzi grew up while his father was imprisoned by the apartheid regime for 27 years.
Like her parents, she was involved in the liberation struggle and was an active member of the African National Congress (ANC).
Chris Jackson / AP
One of his highlights was in 1985 when he read, in front of a large crowd of ANC supporters in a stadium, a letter in which his father rejected an offer for the release of then apartheid president PW Botha.
At the time that Botha had offered to release Mandela from prison on the condition that he renounce violence and protests against apartheid.
To pay tribute to Zindzi’s “unwavering determination of our fight for freedom”, Ramaphosa offered his “deep condolences to the Mandela family as we mourn the passing of a courageous political activist who was a leader in her own right.”
“Our sadness is compounded by this loss that was visited on us a few days before the world marks the birthday of the great Nelson Mandela,” said Ramaphosa.
Mandela died in December 2013 at the age of 95. The anniversary of his birth is July 18.
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