Scandalous yet adored: The Winnie Mandela I knew
Much of South Africa was never at peace with the anti-apartheid campaigner who has died aged 81, writes Sky's Mark Austin.
Tuesday 3 April 2018 08:53, UK
Sky News Correspondent Mark Austin lived in South Africa in the 1990s and interviewed Nelson and Winnie Mandela several times. Here, he writes about his experience.
She was right there, at the heart of one of the defining images of the anti-apartheid era.
Winnie, wife of Nelson, holding his hand aloft as they walked, side by side, out of prison in Cape Town.
He had been incarcerated for 27 years, during which time she had become the courageous fighter against South Africa's brutal and oppressive regime.
But that wasn't the whole story. Winnie - much loved by the poor, black masses in the townships - had also become mired in controversy and allegations of criminal behaviour, violence, attempted murder and fraud.
It was a deep shock to her husband and the marriage would not survive. They were divorced two years after he became president.
:: Anti-apartheid campaigner Winnie Mandela dies
In the beginning though, her brave defiance of the apartheid government and security forces won her the love and respect of many in South Africa, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu who described her as "a defining symbol of the struggle against apartheid".
She inspired generations of activists and was without doubt a key figure in the movement that eventually brought democracy to South Africa.
With her husband in prison, she suffered a life of harassment, threats and intimidation but she persisted in the fight and became known as Mama Winnie - a heroine to millions of blacks.
But her growing status as a revolutionary icon in the townships was also to prove her downfall.
:: Nelson Mandela's love affair with Winnie
She became an all-powerful figure who lost her way, inspired fear and loathing among some, and became caught up in vigilante groups accused of kidnapping, violence and murder.
At one rally she seemed to endorse the use of "necklaces" - rubber tyres filled with petrol and placed around the necks of suspected police informers before being set alight.
And she courted even more controversy when she was accused of involvement in the killing of a young township militant, Stompie Moeketsi.
She was said to be behind a reign of terror in parts of Soweto that alienated other anti-apartheid activists.
Those allegations, coupled with a lavish lifestyle that appeared at odds with the people she was trying to help, all contributed to a reputation for divisiveness that was to taint her political career.
I interviewed her on several occasions and she constantly denied the allegations against her.
But the questions and the suspicions never went away and she was in the end more pre-occupied with fighting her many legal battles than she was making headway politically.
My last interview with her was just a few days after Nelson Mandela passed away.
She was dressed head to toe in black and she was hugely emotional, faltering and tearful.
She described sitting with him for three and a half hours while "his life drained away".
She told me: "The doctors were standing around him. They told me I should move close to him.
"I went close to him and I noticed he was breathing really slowly.
"I was holding him trying to feel his temperature and he felt cold. Then he drew his last breath and just rested… He was gone."
She added: "I realised all along as human beings I honestly could not find myself saying 'it is time' but I knew we had reached the end.
"You get this numb feeling. You don't react to that. I can't describe that kind of sorrow.
"Even though he was 95 and had done so much, there was so much that was still not done."
That last phrase was significant… "so much still not done".
She was very critical of the African National Congress (ANC) under her former husband's leadership.
She felt he spent too much time placating and reassuring the white population and not enough making things right for the black majority.
She was angry that improvement in people's lives was so slow in coming. She was a radical, impatient for real change.
She believed in revolution while her husband favoured reconciliation. She was never at peace with what is happening in South Africa.
But in truth much of South Africa was never at peace with her.
Winnie Mandela: Beautiful, beguiling, mercurial, and adored.
But also controversial, mired in suspicion and scandal and hopelessly flawed.