Winnie a product of her time, says Ramaphosa

Ramaphosa was speaking at a memorial service for Madikizela-Mandela in her hometown of Mbizana in the Eastern Cape.

The struggle icon died in a Johannesburg hospital last Monday at the age of 81.

Her death has seen some critics focussing on her past but Ramaphosa says she was merely a "product of the times".

"The apartheid regime sought to break her spirit, they sought to destroy her by constantly harassing her family, subjecting her to the worst forms of torture, detaining her without trial, putting her in solitary confinement, banishing her to a place that is far away from her home and imposing on her a long-distance relationship with her husband and her children.

"But consistent with her character of the generation of defiant and resilient men and women from which she came, uMam' Winnie's spirit was never broken. uMam' Winnie never gave up. Mam' Winnie never betrayed the struggle, uMam' Winnie never sold out. uMam' Winnie never betrayed her people. uMam' Winnie emerged from every situation meant to break her even stronger and more powerful, more courageous and much more determined.

"That was Winnie Mandela."

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Ramaphosa said Madikizela-Mandela was especially happy with the resolution on land expropriation without compensation taken at the African National Congress' (ANC) national conference in December.

"We are determined to correct the original sin of the violent dispossession of our people's land and its wealth. We are cognisant of the fact that uMam' Winnie will only rest in peace if we restore the dignity of our people by ensuring that they have an equal claim to the land of their forebears and their birth. And I want to ensure all and sundry that this we will not retreat from. We will ensure what uMam' Winnie struggled and fought for we will want to realise."

Madikizela-Mandela's official memorial service is set to be held at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto on Wednesday.