From she-devil to heroine – Winnie Mandela’s surprising metamorphosis

Apartheid South Africa created many heroes and villains, and in the heat of battle for the soul of that country it was sometimes difficult to tell which was which. For decades, Nelson Mandela represented righteous liberation for a society enchained by the grim political philosophy of apartheid. Throughout most of this time, his wife Winnie embodied fearless defiance and radical resistance to the system, a charismatic beauty who howled with rage: according to Lord Hain, ‘a quasi-revolutionary to Mandela’s reformism’.

Today, as South Africa lurches from one crisis to the next, the legacy of the Mandelas is up for grabs. While history will mark Winnie down as an accessory to murder, a psychopath who oversaw the kidnap and torture of young men, an embezzler, an unblushing and unprincipled liar, today’s young black radicals of Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Forum party hold her in the highest regard as the true voice of liberation.