South African anti-apartheid campaigner Winnie Mandela has died aged 81, her personal assistant says.
Winnie is ex-wife of Nelson Mandela.
“She died after a long illness, for which she had been in and out of hospital since the start of the year,” Victor Dlamini said in a statement.
“She succumbed peacefully in the early hours of Monday afternoon surrounded by her family and loved ones.”
Winnie, who was married to Nelson Mandela for 38 years, played a key part in the campaign to end white-minority rule but her place in history was also stained by controversy.
Her uncompromising methods and refusal to forgive contrasted sharply with the reconciliation espoused by her husband Nelson Mandela as he worked to forge a stable, pluralistic democracy from the racial division and oppression of apartheid.
