South Africa’s anti-apartheid veteran and ex-wife to former President Nelson Mandela, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has been admitted to hospital with a kidney infection, the Times Live online news site reports.
According to the Times Live, the 81-year-old had complained of a “loss of appetite” and that “one of her legs was painful” and was taken to Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg on Sunday.
“Upon admission‚ it was discovered that she had an infection that had affected her kidneys. She is expected to make a full recovery and should spend approximately a week at the hospital‚” her spokesman Victor Dlamini was quoted as saying in a statement on Tuesday night.
Mr. and Mrs. Mandela were wed in 1956 and divorced in 1996.
Mrs. Madikizela-Mandela was popularly known as “the mother of the nation” during her ex-husband’s 27-year imprisonment for his fight against apartheid. She campaigned for his release and the rights of black South Africans, undergoing arrest and banishment. She was persecuted by authorities during white rule, but went on to hold a ministerial post after democratic elections in 1994.
Madikizela-Mandela has been in and out of the hospital since 2016 for back and knee surgery.
