Zindzi Mandela, daughter of Nelson Mandela, dies

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Zindzi Mandela, the daughter of former South African President and liberation hero Nelson Mandela, died on Monday, the Mandela family said.

Zindzi Mandela, the youngest daughter of anti-apartheid activists Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and Nelson Mandela, rose to international fame when she read Nelson Mandela’s rejection of former President PW Botha’s offer of a conditional release from prison in 1985.

The Mandela Legacy Foundation, speaking on behalf of the family, said the memorial and funeral arrangements for Zindzi would be announced later in the week. He did not say why he had died.

Zindzi, 59, who served as South Africa’s ambassador to Denmark, died early Monday morning at a Johannesburg hospital, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office said in a statement.

She was sent to Denmark in 2015 and was appointed to become head of mission in Monrovia, Liberia.

Ramaphosa expressed sadness for his days before Nelson Mandela’s birthday and said he brought home “the unwavering resolve of our fight for freedom.”

“After our release, she became an icon of the task that we began to transform our society and to enter spaces and opportunities that had been denied to generations of South Africans,” the Ramaphosa office said.

During her political career, she served as vice president of the Soweto Youth Congress and was a clandestine agent for the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC) party, uMkhonto we Sizwe.

Pule Mabe, spokesperson for the ruling ANC party, said: “This is inappropriate. She still had a role to play in transforming our own society and a more important role to play even in the African National Congress. ”