Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

I often wonder why I attract so much criticism.

Nelson was locked up on Robben Island, and wives like me had been warned we would bring our husbands home as corpses from that place. But I always believed he would be released. It was my duty to have a home ready for us.

I believe in myself and the justice I've fought for all my life.

I'm not ashamed of anything I've ever done in the name of fairness and justice for my people.

I don't say we should have performed miracles, but surely there ought to have been a difference between the apartheid regime and governance of the ANC after 17 years.

The government can become so elitist and concentrate on elitist interests. To help the government, you must constantly hold its attention.

To me, David Astor was a freedom fighter. To me, he wasn't just a journalist; he was a freedom fighter.

In the normal course of things, journalists want their story, and as soon as they are through with it, they pack their cameras and go. That was never the impression that David Astor gave when you were interviewed by him. It was far deeper than that.

I wanted to be a doctor at some point, and I was always bringing home strays from school: people who were too poor to pay fees or have food. My parents never rebuked me or told me that they were hard-pressed, too.

There is nothing the government has not done to me. There isn't any pain I haven't known.

I'm like thousands of women in South Africa who lost their men to cities and prisons... I stand defiant, tall and strong.

I learned to deal with the police... to be tough... to survive.