President Yoweri Museveni has today paid his last respects to South African freedom fighter, Winnie Mandela, describing her as the face of the struggle against apartheid.
The President visited the South African High Commission in Kampala on Tuesday morning where he signed a condolence book in honor of Winnie Madikizela Mandela, who died weeks ago.
He said that in the 30 year period between the time Nelson Mandela was sent to jail and when he was finally freed, “Winnie Mandela filled an indispensable gap for the struggle of our people in South Africa”.
“Many anti-apartheid activists had been imprisoned, exiled and others killed. When Mandela would appear in pictures, he had this beautiful young lady beside him”.
Even in the midst of Winnie’s arrests and confinement, she became the face of the African National Congress, Museveni said.
“She was the face of the struggle until the early 70s when other faces began to appear to support the cause,” he said.
Museveni said that Winnie managed to exhibit bravery in the struggle against white oppression despite having had no prior preparation for this role.
“It is for this reason that I had to go to the high commission and condole with South Africans and the rest of Africa,” the President wrote on his Facebook page.
Winnie died on April 2, at the age of 81, at a hospital in Johannesburg in South Africa where she had been hospitalized for an illness earlier this year.