Nelson Mandela’s daughter Zindzi died at the age of 59 at a hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa, according to the state broadcaster SABC.
Zindzi Mandela, the daughter of the first Black president in South Africa and a renowned philanthropist, has become the former president’s fourth child to pass away.
According to the state broadcaster, the 59-year-old diplomat, who served as the country’s ambassador to Denmark, died at a Johannesburg hospital. The cause of death, however, hasn’t been released.
“This is untimely. She still had a role to play in the transformation of our own society and a bigger role to play even in the African National Congress,” Pule Mabe, a spokesperson for the African National Congress, said.
In 1969, at the age of just 24, Nelson’s eldest son and Zindzi’s half-brother, Madiba Thembekile Mandela, died in a car crash along with four other people.
Her other half-brother, Makgatho Mandela, also died prematurely, at the age of 55, following complications from AIDS.
Nelson Mandela’s first child to pass away was Makaziwe Mandela, the daughter he had with his first wife Evelyn Mase, who died at the age of 9 months.
Still surviving the former president are his two daughters Makaziwe, 66, and Zenani, 61.
Following Zindzi’s premature death, renowned figures, including President Cyril Ramaphosa, have paid a tribute to the activist who last year sparked a heated debate after suggesting that white-owned land in the country should be returned to dispossessed Black majority.
“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,” President Ramaphosa expressed.
“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.
“Her spirit joins Tata Madiba and Mama Winnie in a reunion of leaders to whom we owe our freedom.”
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Replaced!