My Boss, Mrs Winnie Mandela
In MY BOSS, MRS WINNIE MANDELA, Zodwa Zwane – Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s personal assistant, confidante, and spiritual anchor – breaks her long held silence to share the story only she can tell. For more than a decade, Zodwa walked beside one of South Africa’s most formidable and controversial icons – through scandals, heartbreaks, the traumas of banishment, and Winnie’s eventual spiritual redemption – holding her boss’s hand right up until Winnie Mandela’s death in April 2018.
From the private rooms of Soweto to the corridors of power, Zodwa was there as witness and gatekeeper, becoming part of Winnie’s trusted inner circle. This intimate memoir offers a rare, behind-the-scenes portrait of Mrs Mandela as a strong, complex, wounded, and fiercely loving woman, navigating power, politics and pain. Zodwa’s humour and nononsense voice cuts through myth to reveal the loyalty, conflict, and deep affection that defined their bond.
As Winnie’s right hand, Zodwa also stood at the crossroads of the ANC’s inner workings and the Mandela family’s private tensions. She managed not only her boss’s diary, but deeply held secrets – her loyalty tested daily.
Part political history, part personal reflection, My Boss, Mrs Winnie Mandela is both a revelation and a tribute to sisterhood, faith, resilience, and the quiet strength of a woman who stood in the shadow of greatness and found her own meaning and light there.