South Africa president hails Palestinians’ defiance in face of Israel aggression

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa hailed defiant Palestinians during a memorial service held on Saturday for South African anti-apartheid icon Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

Addressing thousands of mourners at Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg’s Soweto, Ramaphosa said Madikizela-Mandela “lives on in the Palestinian teenager who refuses to stand by as he’s stripped of his home, his heritage and his prospects for a peaceful and content, dignified life.”

Eighty-one-year-old Madikizela-Mandela died on 2 April after a long illness for which she had been in and out of hospital since the start of the year.

Madikizela-Mandela was the ex-wife of the late Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president. She was one of the country’s greatest icons in the struggle against apartheid.

Read: Hamas mourns death of ‘Mama’ Winnie Madikizela-Mandela