By Sewe Ishola,

Mrs Winnie Madikizela- Mandela, former wife of late South African statesman, Nelson Mandela is dead.

She died yesterday, 2nd April at the Netcare Milpark Hospital, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Since the announcement of her death, social media had been filled with condolences messages directed at the family of the late apartheid sage.

The family said in a statement said that Winnie had died after a long illness, for which she had been in and out of hospital since the start of the year.

“Mrs. Madikizela-Mandela was one of the greatest icons of the struggle against apartheid,” the statement said. “She fought valiantly against the apartheid state and sacrificed her life for the freedom of the country.”

Madikizela-Mandela was known as the “Mother of the Nation” because of her struggle against white-minority rule in South Africa.

See the tweet from her official Twitter account below:

It is with profound sadness that we inform the public that Mrs Winnie Madikizela-Mandela passed away at the Netcare Milpark Hospital, Johannesburg, South Africa on Monday 2 April 2018.#RIPWinnie pic.twitter.com/K6BF6VxZmp

— Winnie Mandela (@winniemandela) April 3, 2018

She was married to Nelson Mandela for 38 years, including the 27 years he was imprisoned on an island near Cape Town.

The couple were divorced in 1996, two years after Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s first black President. They had two daughters together. Nelson Mandela died in 2013.