Winnie’s biographer Emma Gilbey (The Lady: Life and Times of Winnie Mandela, 1993) records that she was a rebel in her own right from an early age. There was somehow an inevitability about Winnie and Nelson meeting, setting in motion one of history’s great and yet tragic love stories. Winnie suffered her first major spell of imprisonment in May 1969, having been arrested, supposedly for political agitation, but more likely for simply being the wife of Nelson Mandela. When a complacent and arrogant Afrikaner prosecutor rose and addressed Winnie by her number, she retorted that she was not a number, that her name was Winnie Mandela, and she should be addressed as such. In 1989 Winnie’s reputation was damaged beyond redemption, even despite Nelson’s intercession, when the Stompie Moeketsi scandal broke.

Source: The Guardian April 02, 2018 16:30 UTC