Zoleka Mandela,
granddaughter of South Africa's first democratically elected President Nelson
Mandela, has died of cancer at the age of 43.
She passed away
on Monday evening surrounded by friends and family, a spokesperson said.
In recent years,
Ms Mandela had become well known for detailing her cancer treatment. She was
also open about her history of drug addiction.
The Nelson
Mandela Foundation said her work was inspirational.
It said that she
raised "awareness about cancer prevention" as well as "breaking
down the stigma surrounding the disease".
Ms Mandela also
spoke candidly about her struggles with depression and the fact that she had
been sexually abused as a child.
In addition, she
campaigned for better road safety after her 13-year-old daughter was killed in
a car accident in 2010. She later lost a son who was born prematurely. She is
survived by four children.
Ms Mandela, who
was the granddaughter of Nelson Mandela's second wife, Winnie, documented her
story in her autobiography When Hope Whispers.
Diagnosed with
breast cancer at age of 32, she received treatment and was in remission but the
illness later returned.
Last year, she
confirmed that she had cancer in her liver and lungs, it then spread to other
organs. She was being treated as an outpatient but was admitted to hospital
just over a week ago.
"What do I
tell my children? How do I tell them that this time around I may not get to
live my life as a survivor? How do I tell them everything will be OK when it's
not? I'm dying... I don't want to die," she posted on Instagram in
August 2022.
In an
interview with Kaya FM in April, Ms Mandela said: "I'm learning to be okay
with my eventuality."
Her frank
disclosures gained her a following on social media, which is where people on
Tuesday have been leaving tributes.
"Utterly
tragic loss of a human being in her grandfather's footsteps. A decent, honest
human being in a dishonest, hypocritical world," one person on X,
formerly Twitter, said.
"You were
one of the bravest people I know and you inspired many people on your life's
journey of hope," another person wrote on Instagram below the Mandela
family's announcement.
Ms Mandela was
only 10 when her grandfather was released from prison in 1990 after 27 years in
detention.
She had only
ever known him as an incarcerated man, so when he was released she was just
excited he was coming home.
Mr Mandela died
in 2013 at the age of 95.
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