Editing Winnie Madikizela-Mandela (section)

==Apartheid: 1963–1985==
Winnie Mandela emerged as a leading opponent of [[apartheid]] during the latter part of her husband's imprisonment. Due to her political activities, she was regularly detained by the [[National Party (South Africa)|National Party]] government. She was subjected to house arrest, kept under surveillance, imprisoned, and banished to the remote town of Brandfort.<ref name="theguardian1" />

Her longest jailing was for 491 days (as noted in her account ''491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69''), beginning on 12 May 1969, at [[Pretoria Central Prison]], where she spent months in [[solitary confinement]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?doc=/people/mandela_nw.html|title=Nomzamo Nobandla Winnifred Madikizela–Mandela|publisher=[[African National Congress]]|access-date=24 January 2010|quote=In 1969, she became one of the first detainees under Section 6 of the notorious Terrorism Act. She was detained for eighteen months in solitary confinement in the condemned cell at Pretoria Central Prison before being charged under the Suppression of Communism Act 1950.|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314015912/http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?doc=%2Fpeople%2Fmandela_nw.html|archive-date=14 March 2012}}</ref> and was tortured and beaten.<ref name="ftObit">{{cite news|url=https://www.ft.com/content/15d816ca-36a2-11e8-8eee-e06bde01c544 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/15d816ca-36a2-11e8-8eee-e06bde01c544 |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, anti-apartheid leader, 1936-2018|website=Financial Times|date=2 April 2018 |last1=Pilling |first1=David }}</ref>  By her own account, her experience in prison "hardened" her.<ref name="ftObit"/>

From 1977 to 1985,<ref name="timesLiveMarkOnBrandfort">{{cite news|url=https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/news/2018-04-07-exile-in-dust-madikizela-mandela-left-her-mark-on-brandfort/|title=Exile in dust: Madikizela-Mandela left her mark on Brandfort|newspaper=Sunday Times}}</ref> she was banished to the town of [[Brandfort]] in the [[Orange Free State (province)|Orange Free State]] and confined to the area.<ref name="charleneSmithConscienceMercury">{{cite web|url=https://www.iol.co.za/mercury/opinion-the-conscience-of-a-nation-that-has-forgotten-apartheid-14240988|title=Opinion – The conscience of a nation that has forgotten apartheid|publisher=The Mercury}}</ref> It was at this time that she became well known in the Western world. She organised a [[child care|creche]] with a [[non-governmental organization]], Operation Hunger<ref name="iolPerlmanObit">{{cite web|url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/western-cape/operation-hunger-founder-dies-1330353|title=Operation Hunger founder dies|publisher=South African Press Association (SAPA)}}</ref> and a clinic in Brandfort with [[Abu Baker Asvat|Dr Abu Baker Asvat]], her personal physician,<ref name="saHistoryAsvat">{{cite web|url=http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/dr-abu-baker-asvat|title=Dr. Abu Baker Asvat &#124; South African History Online|website=sahistory.org.za|access-date=13 April 2018}}</ref> campaigned actively for equal rights and was promoted by the ANC as a symbol of their struggle against apartheid.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1997/the_winnie_mandela_trial/33659.stm|title=The Winnie Mandela Trial|publisher=BBC|date=29 November 1997}}</ref> While in exile in Brandfort, she, and those who attempted to assist her, were harassed by the apartheid police.<ref name="momiatBdAssessment">{{cite web|url=https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/2018-04-19-yunus-momoniat-winnie-and-sa-deserve-an-honest-assessment/|title=Yunus Momoniat: Winnie and SA deserve an honest assessment|website=Business Day|date=19 April 2018}}</ref>

In a leaked letter to [[Jacob Zuma]] in October 2008, outgoing President of South Africa [[Thabo Mbeki]] alluded to the role the ANC had created for Nelson and Winnie Mandela, as representative symbols of the brutality of apartheid: <blockquote>In the context of the global struggle for the release of political prisoners in our country, our movement took a deliberate decision to profile Nelson Mandela as the representative personality of these prisoners, and therefore to use his personal political biography, including the persecution of his wife, Winnie Mandela, dramatically to present to the world and the South African community the brutality of the apartheid system.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71619?oid=108395&sn=Detail|title=Thabo Mbeki's letter to Jacob Zuma|date=31 October 2008|publisher=Politicsweb|access-date=15 April 2009}}</ref></blockquote>

Beaten by the apartheid police, she developed an addiction to painkillers and alcohol as a result of a back injury caused by the assault.<ref name="charleneSmithConscienceMercury"/><ref name="canadaStarBedellLoved">{{cite news|url=https://www.thestar.com/news/world/opinion/2018/04/02/we-both-loved-winnie-nelson-mandela-and-i.html|title=We both loved Winnie, Nelson Mandela and I|newspaper=Toronto Star|first=Gary |last=Bedell|date=2 April 2018}}</ref>