The youngest daughter of South Africa’s first black president Nelson Mandela, Zindzi Mandela has died at the age of 59.
The state broadcaster the SABC reports that she died in a Johannesburg hospital in the early hours of Monday.
Zindzi was serving as ambassador to Denmark at the time of her death. The cause of her death was not immediately revealed.
President Cyril Ramaphosa in a statement said Zindzi Mandela had “during our years of struggle brought home the inhumanity of the apartheid system and the unshakeable resolve of our fight for freedom”.
He added that “After our liberation she became an icon of the task we began of transforming our society and stepping into spaces and opportunities that had been denied to generations of South Africans.”
Minister of International Relations Naledi Pandor said: “Zindzi will not only be remembered as a daughter of our struggle heroes, but as a struggle heroine in her own right.”
Ms Mandela had been designated to become South Africa’s head of mission in Monrovia, Liberia.
She was Nelson Mandela’s sixth child and his second with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, his second wife.
The giant tree has fallen, the daughter of the soil @ZindziMandela is no more and may your soul Rest In Peace Zindziswa Mandela #RIPZindziMandela ✊? pic.twitter.com/tq7iYth8YZ
— Mzilikazi wa Afrika (@IamMzilikazi) July 13, 2020
Source: Africafeeds.com
