Zindzi Mandela survived apartheid, we thought she'd survive Covid-19 – Malema, Mokonyane
The late Zindzi Mandela was laid to rest in a small, private ceremony this morning at the Mandela burial site at Fourways Memorial Park, north Johannesburg.
The 59-year-old South Africa Ambassador to Denmark passed away on Monday morning in a Johannesburg hospital.
The Mandela family confirmed that she tested positive for Covid-19 at the time of her death
She was the daughter of late struggle icons Nelson Mandela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
Leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Julius Malema says he is still in disbelief that Zindzi Mandela has passed on.
"She survived the most brutal regime at an early age, and we thought that this crisis and the invisible enemy we are confronted with today, she is going to survive because she faced worse," says Malema.
This sentiment was also shared by former Cabinet Minister, Nomvula Mokonyane, who described Zindzi as a doyen in her own right.
"Sadly the invisible enemy has been able to take her away from us, when she has survived bullets when she has survived torture and pain inflicted by the apartheid system," says Mokonyane.
Human Settlements and Water Minister, Lindiwe Sisulu, says she is saddened by the attacks against Zindzi on social media following her passing.
Zindzi Mandela was an advocate of land being restored to the African people of the country and received a lot of critique and verbal attacks on social media for her beliefs.
Following the announcement of her passing, the racial attacks on her character resurfaced again.
Sisulu has described these attacks as cowardly since the late daughter of Nelson Mandela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela cannot respond.
"And I hope that black South Africans will respond to that. It just makes the tragedy so much unbearable; we will answer," says Sisulu.