Zindzi Mandela
Zindziswa "Zindzi" Mandela (23 December 1960 – 13 July 2020),[1] also known as Zindzi Mandela-Hlongwane, was a South African diplomat and poet, and the daughter of anti-apartheid activists and politicians Nelson Mandela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Zindzi was the youngest and third of Nelson Mandela's three daughters, including sister Zenani Mandela.[2][3]
Zindzi Mandela-Hlongwane
Nelson Mandela
(father)
Graça Machel
(step-mother)
13 July 2020 (aged 59)
Johannesburg, South Africa
Fourways Memorial Park Cemetery
-
Zwelibanzi Hlongwane(divorced)
-
Molapo Motlhajwa(m. 2013)
4, including Zoleka
- Zenani Mandela-Dlamini (sister)
- Thembekile Mandela (half-brother)
- Makgatho Mandela (half-brother)
- Makaziwe Mandela (half-sister)
She had served as her country's ambassador to Denmark, until her death in 2020,[4] and was due to take up a post as ambassador to Liberia.[5] She served as a stand-in First Lady of South Africa from 1996 to 1998.[6]
Her collection of poems, Black As I Am, was published in 1978, with photographs by Peter Magubane.[7]
Personal life and death[edit]
Zindzi was married twice and had four children - daughter Zoleka (1980–2023) with Oupa Seakamela and sons Zondwa (b. 1983) with a Mbuyiselo Mboya, Bambatha (b. 1989) with Sizwe Clayton Sithole and Zwelabo (b. 1992) with her first husband, Zwelibanzi Hlongwane.[28] [29][30] She married her second husband, Molapo Motlhajwa, who was a member of the South African National Defence Force, in March 2013.[31]
Mandela-Hlongwane was said to have agreed to arrange a boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao to coincide with her father's birthday in 2011. The match did not take place and the boxing promoter Duane Moody sued successfully for a US court to order that she pay US$4.7m, plus costs, in damages to Moody. Mandela-Hlongwane was expected to appeal.[32]
Zindzi died on 13 July 2020, aged 59, at a hospital in Johannesburg.[1][33] It was revealed that she had tested positive for COVID-19 on the day of her death.[34] She was buried next to her mother, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, at Fourways Memorial Park on 17 July, a day before what would have been the 102nd birthday of her late father, Nelson Mandela.[35]