Zindzi Mandela, the youngest daughter of Mandela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, was buried at a private funeral on Friday following her death aged 59 earlier this week.
Zindzi,was South Africa’s ambassador to Denmark at the time of her death.
Her family said she had tested positive for coronavirus on the day she died on Monday, but they were still awaiting post-mortem results.
In a eulogy at a virtual memorial Thursday night, President Cyril Ramaphosa thanked the Mandela family for “the very important gesture of sharing this information with the nation”.
“In doing so you are helping to encourage social acceptance for sufferers.”
“This is a virus that affects us all, and there should never be any stigma around people who become infected,” said Ramaphosa.
Zindzi was buried next to her mother — who died two years ago — at a cemetery in Fourways, a northern suburb of Johannesburg.
Radical leftist opposition leader Julius Malema paid tribute to Zindzi for her role in the liberation of South Africa from the shackles of apartheid.
– ‘Shattered’ –
“She survived the most brutal regime at an early age and we thought that this crisis and invisible enemy (coronavirus) we are confronted with today, she is going to survive it because she has seen worse,” said Malema.
“And when people like mama Zindzi succumb to this invisible enemy we all remain hopeless and we are shattered,” Malema told public broadcaster SABC at the cemetery.
One of her most prominent moments was in 1985 when she read out — in front of a huge crowd of ANC supporters at a Soweto stadium — a letter in which her father rejected an offer of release from the then apartheid president P.W. Botha.
(AFP)
Zindzi,was South Africa’s ambassador to Denmark at the time of her death.
Her family said she had tested positive for coronavirus on the day she died on Monday, but they were still awaiting post-mortem results.
In a eulogy at a virtual memorial Thursday night, President Cyril Ramaphosa thanked the Mandela family for “the very important gesture of sharing this information with the nation”.
“In doing so you are helping to encourage social acceptance for sufferers.”
“This is a virus that affects us all, and there should never be any stigma around people who become infected,” said Ramaphosa.
Zindzi was buried next to her mother — who died two years ago — at a cemetery in Fourways, a northern suburb of Johannesburg.
Radical leftist opposition leader Julius Malema paid tribute to Zindzi for her role in the liberation of South Africa from the shackles of apartheid.
– ‘Shattered’ –
“She survived the most brutal regime at an early age and we thought that this crisis and invisible enemy (coronavirus) we are confronted with today, she is going to survive it because she has seen worse,” said Malema.
“And when people like mama Zindzi succumb to this invisible enemy we all remain hopeless and we are shattered,” Malema told public broadcaster SABC at the cemetery.
One of her most prominent moments was in 1985 when she read out — in front of a huge crowd of ANC supporters at a Soweto stadium — a letter in which her father rejected an offer of release from the then apartheid president P.W. Botha.
(AFP)
