Nelson Mandela’s Youngest Daughter Zindzi Dead At 59

Nelson Mandela’s youngest daughter Zindzi has passed away at the age of 59.

State broadcaster SABC confirmed that she died in a hospital in Johannesburg in the early hours of Monday, July 13. She had been serving as the South African ambassador to Denmark at the time of her passing. A cause of death has not yet been revealed.

Zindzi was the second child of the former South African president and his second wife, anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Nelson, who died in 2013, also had five other children.

“Zindzi will not only be remembered as a daughter of our struggle’s heroes, Tata Nelson and Mama Winnie Mandela, but as a struggle heroine in her own right,” said South Africa’s minister of international relations and cooperation Naledi Pandor. “She served South Africa well.”

In a statement posted to social media, South Africa’s current president Cyril Ramaphosa also mourned the tragic loss. He wrote, “I offer my deep condolences to the Mandela family as we mourn the passing of a fearless political activist who was a leader in her own right.”

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“Our sadness is compounded by this loss being visited upon us just days before the world marks the birthday of the great Nelson Mandela,” he continued. “Zindzi Mandela was a household name nationally and internationally, who during our years of struggle brought home the inhumanity of the apartheid system and the unshakeable resolve of our fight for freedom.”

“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. #RIPZindziMandela.”

— Gabi Duncan