Zindzi Mandela, Youngest Daughter of Nelson Mandela, Dead at 59

Zindzi Mandela, the youngest daughter of Nelson Mandela, has died. She was 59.

Mandela, who died early Monday in a Johannesburg hospital, was an activist who pushed for her father’s release from prison during Apartheid and was ambassador of South Africa to Denmark. The cause of her death was not revealed.

Zindzi was the sixth and youngest daughter to Nelson Mandela. Her mother was Nelson's second wife, Winnie.

Nelson, who spent 27 years of his life as a political prisoner, was South Africa’s first Black and democratically elected president following the fall of Apartheid in 1994. During his time in prison, Zindzi campaigned to have her father freed.

Zindzi famously and publicly read her father’s rejection of then-president P.W. Botha's offer for conditional release from prison at a public meeting in February 1985.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu said that her "speech in Soweto, on behalf of her father... reinvigorated the values and principles of the struggle."

Zindzi “played a critical role symbolizing the humanity and steadfastness of the anti-apartheid struggle,” he added.

Actor Idris Elba, who portrayed Nelson Mandela in 2013’s “Long Walk to Freedom,” tweeted a heart with her name in remembrance of her.

Zindzi is survived by two siblings, her sisters Zenani Dlamini and Pumla Makaziwe Mandela. She is predeceased by her parents, Nelson, who did in 2013 at the age of 95, and her mother, Winnie, who died in 2018 at the age of 82. 

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