Madiba Multiple Marriage Life

What many people may not be aware of is the fact that Winnie Madikizela, who became known as ‘Mother of the Nation’ by most South Africans, was not Mandela’s first wife. Mandela was married three times, producing six children – four girls and two boys.

A daughter and two sons passed away: Makaziwe died as an infant in 1948; Madiba Thembekile died in a car accident in 1969 and Makgatho Lewanika died of an AIDS-related illness in 2005.

His surviving children are Pumla Makaziwe, Zenani and Zindziswa.

In the house of his friend and ANC activist, Walter Sisulu, Mandela met Evelyn Mase, an ANC activist from Engcobo, Transkei, who was training at the time to become a nurse. They got married on October 5, 1944, after initially living with her relatives, they rented House no. 8115 in Orlando from early 1946.

 Mandela and his first wife divorced on March 19, 1958, after 13 years because of his adultery and constant absences, devotion to revolutionary agitation. Added to this was the fact that Evelyn was a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, a religion requiring political neutrality. The couple had two sons, Madiba “Thembi” Thembekile (1946–1969) and Makgatho Mandela (1950–2005), and two daughters, both named Makaziwe Mandela (known as Maki; born 1947 and 1953). Their first daughter died aged nine months, and they named their second daughter in her honour. Mase died in 2004, and Mandela attended her funeral. Makgatho’s son, Mandla Mandela, became chief of the Mvezo tribal council in 2007.

Mandela married his second wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela on June 14, 1958. They met in Johannesburg, where she was the city’s first black social worker. They had two daughters, Zenani (Zeni), born 4 February 1958, and Zindziswa (Zindzi) Mandela-Hlongwane, born in 1960. Zindzi was only 18 months old when her father was sent to Robben island.

Later, Winnie would be deeply torn by family discord which mirrored the country’s political strife; separation (April 1992) and divorce (March 1996), fueled by political estrangement. Mandela was still in prison when his daughter Zenani was married in 1973 to Prince Thumbumuzi Dlamini, a brother of both King Mswati III of Swaziland.

Mandela initiated divorce proceedings against Winnie in 1992, two years after his release from jail. He cited her “brazen conduct” as reason. He then recounted how in August 1992, he was given a letter supposedly written by Winnie which confirmed his suspicions of her infidelity with a young lawyer from the ANC.

Mandela remarried on his 80th birthday in 1998, to his third wife, Graça Machel, widow of Samora Machel, the former Mozambican President and ANC ally, who was killed in an air crash 12 years earlier.