Former South African president Nelson Mandela’s ex-wife denied on Friday that she had given an interview to a British newspaper in which she was quoted criticizing the anti-apartheid icon.
The London Evening Standard had quoted Winnie Madikizela-Mandela as saying that her ex-husband had “let us down” and that she could not forgive him for accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 alongside white then-president F.W. De Klerk.
Madikizela-Mandela said she did not grant an interview to the newspaper but she did not specifically deny making the remarks, which created a stir in South Africa.
“I will in the coming days deal with what I see as an inexplicable attempt to undermine the unity of my family, the legacy of Nelson Mandela and the high regard with which the name Mandela is held here and across the globe,” Madikizela-Mandela said in a statement distributed by the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
The Evening Standard said the conversation with Madikizela-Mandela was conducted with Nadira Naipaul, wife of Nobel literature laureate V.S. Naipaul.
“Nadira Naipaul is a distinguished journalist who visited Winnie Mandela at home and spoke to her at length about her experiences,” the newspaper said on Friday. “Nadira and her husband, the writer Sir V.S. Naipaul, are photographed with Winnie Mandela and this picture was printed with the article. We cannot understand Winnie Mandela’s denial of an event and conversation which clearly took place.”
Nadira Naipaul said: “The conversation took place as I reported, and I accurately rendered the statements Winnie Mandela made.”
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