SOWETO, SOUTH AFRICA — Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who emerged as a combative anti-apartheid campaigner during her husband Nelson Mandela’s decades in jail but whose reputation was later tarnished by allegations of violence, died on Monday at the age of 81.
Madikizela-Mandela died peacefully surrounded by her family following a long illness that kept her in and out of hospital since the start of the year, family spokesman Victor Dlamini said in a statement.
“Winnie Mandela leaves a huge legacy and, as we say in African culture, a gigantic tree has fallen,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said after visiting Madikizela-Mandela’s house in Soweto, where he was surrounded by singing mourners.
“She has been one of the strongest women in our struggle, who suffered immensely under the apartheid regime, who was imprisoned, who was banished, who was treated very badly.”
An official memorial service will be held for Madikizela-Mandela on April 11 and a national funeral on April 14, said Ramaphosa, who declared earlier that South Africans had lost “a mother, a grandmother, a friend, a comrade, a leader and an icon.”
A crowd of around 200 people congregated outside Madikizela-Mandela’s Soweto home soon after her death was announced, singing and dancing.
The cause of death or nature of her illness was not disclosed.
Ministers and national figures paid tribute, including retired South African cleric and anti-apartheid campaigner Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who said: “Her courageous defiance was deeply inspirational to me, and to generations of activists.”
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was among those who offered his condolences from abroad, according to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
“The secretary-general is saddened by the passing of Ms. Winnie Madikizela Mandela, a leading figure at the forefront of the fight against apartheid in South Africa. She was a strong and fearless voice in the struggle for equal rights and will be remembered as a symbol of resistance,” he said.
TIRELESS CAMPAIGNER
Born on Sept. 26, 1936, in Bizana, Eastern Cape province, Ms. Madikizela-Mandela became politicised at an early age in her job as a hospital social worker.
The 22-year-old Winnie caught the eye of Mr. Mandela at a Soweto bus-stop in 1957, starting a whirlwind romance that led to their marriage a year later.
After Nelson Mandela was jailed for life in 1964 for sabotage and plotting to overthrow the government, Ms. Madikizela-Mandela campaigned tirelessly for his release and emerged as a prominent anti-apartheid figure in her own right, undergoing detention, banishment and arrest.
She punched the air in the clenched-fist salute of black power as she walked hand-in-hand with Mandela out of Victor Verster prison, near Cape Town, on Feb. 11, 1990.
For husband and wife, it was a crowning moment that led four years later to the end of centuries of white domination when Mr. Mandela became South Africa’s first black president.
But their marriage began to fall apart in the years after his release. The couple divorced in 1996, nearly four decades after they were married. They had two children together.
The end of apartheid marked the start of a string of legal and political troubles for Ms. Madikizela-Mandela.
As evidence emerged in the dying years of apartheid of the brutality of her Soweto enforcers, the “Mandela United Football Club,” her soubriquet switched from “Mother” of the nation to “Mugger.”
Blamed for the killing of activist Stompie Seipei, who was found near her Soweto home with his throat cut, she was convicted in 1991 of kidnapping and assaulting the 14-year-old because he was suspected of being an informer. Her six-year jail term was reduced on appeal to a fine. — Reuters

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia’s government Monday pushed a law through parliament that makes “fake news” punishable by a maximum six-year jail term despite an outcry from critics worried it will be used to stifle dissent before elections.
The law targets foreign as well as local media, and is seen in part as an effort to silence criticism of the scandal surrounding sovereign wealth fund 1MDB that has rocked the administration of Prime Minister Najib Razak.
The election is expected within weeks and Mr. Najib is battling to win a third term at the head of the coalition that has led Malaysia for over six decades.
The current parliament is dominated by the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition.
The law originally proposed a maximum prison sentence of 10 years and a fine of 500,000 ringgit ($130,000) for publishing what authorities deem to be fake news, but the government lowered the jail term to six years following a storm of criticism.
“This law is not intended to restrict the freedom of speech but to restrict the dissemination of fake news,” said minister Azalina Othman Said.
But opposition legislators were not convinced, criticising the law’s heavy penalties and its potential to limit free speech.
“This bill… is a weapon to close the truth so that what is false can be upheld as true, and what is true can be reversed as false,” said Lim Guan Eng of the Democratic Action Party. “This is something very dangerous for our country.”
The law must still be debated in the senate but is expected to be passed. More than half of the senate is filled with Barisan Nasional members. After this it needs royal assent before taking effect.
The new law has sparked widespread anger from activists, press freedom groups and the opposition, who believe it is aimed at cracking down on dissenting voices rather than safeguarding the public from false information.
Before it was passed, Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, condemned it as a “blatant attempt by the government to prevent any and all news that it doesn’t like, whether about corruption or elections.”
He said it “uses draconian penalties and broad language in an audacious and unprecedented effort to control discussion of Malaysia worldwide.”
The law covers any information that is deemed to be “wholly or partly fake.”
It includes several examples, such as a blogger publishing a report known to be false; someone sharing information on social media they know to be false; and someone giving a speech containing information they know to be untrue.
Malaysia is one of several countries in Asia turning to such legislation, emboldened by US President Donald Trump’s fulminations against “fake news,” but activists warn authoritarian regimes will use the laws to target opponents.
A parliamentary committee in neighboring Singapore, which is examining possible legislation to combat “fake news,” came under fire Monday from activists who alleged it misrepresented them.
Malaysia ranks 144^th out of 180 countries in the 2017 World Press Freedom Index, with number one being the freest.
The law comes less than a week after parliament voted in favor of a move to redraw electoral borders. Opposition politicians said this would tilt the election in Mr. Najib’s favor.
Mr. Najib is fighting to keep his coalition — which has never lost a national poll — in power while battling allegations that billions of dollars were looted from 1MDB, a sovereign wealth fund he founded. Both Mr. Najib and the fund deny any wrongdoing.
He faces a tough challenge from an opposition led by his former boss and ex-premier Mahathir Mohamad, 92, who is looking to unseat him at the polls. — AFP