Wife of Anti-Apartheid Hero Tambo Dies

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Adelaide Tambo, widow of South African anti-apartheid hero Oliver Tambo and a stalwart in the struggle against racial segregation, died Wednesday, officials said. She was 77.

A statement from the African National Congress said Tambo collapsed at her home in Johannesburg. No other details were given.

"The ANC joins all South Africans in mourning the loss of a true heroine of our nation, a daughter of our soil who dedicated her life to the freedom of our people," it said.

Like her husband, Tambo, fondly known as Ma-Tambo or Mama Adelaide, was a lifelong political activist and widely regarded as a mother figure to anti-apartheid figures in exile.

In her later years she became an advocate of rights for elderly people and the disabled. She remained active in the ANC, the party of Nelson Mandela and current President Thabo Mbeki, but watched in anguish as South Africa was blighted by violence and HIV/AIDS.

Born July 18, 1929, Tambo began working for the ANC as a courier in her teens. She met her future husband at the launch of an ANC Youth League branch.

In 1956, Oliver Tambo was arrested and charged with 155 other ANC members, including Mandela, for high treason. The trial lasted more than three years, ending in the acquittal of all the accused.

The Tambos fled from South Africa in 1960 and Oliver Tambo was ANC leader in exile while Mandela was in prison. He won support around the world for the anti-apartheid movement. He died of a stroke in 1993, one year before the country's first multiracial democratic elections.

Adelaide Tambo received South Africa's top decoration _ the Order of the Baobab in Gold _ in 2002 for exceptional commitment to the struggles against apartheid and dedication to community service and nation building.

"Her passing away amounts to a loss to the entire country and the international community," Mbeki said in a statement.

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Associated Press reporter Clare Nullis in Cape Town contributed to this report.