Cape Town, South Africa - South African liberation heroine Albertina Sisulu died in Johannesburg on Thursday at the age of 92. The widow of African National Congress (ANC) stalwart Walter Sisulu experienced years of detention, banning and arrests during the Apartheid struggle. She was born in the Tsomo district of the Transkei in 1918, one of five children of Bonilizwe and Monikazi Tetiwe. Orphaned as a teenager, she left the Transkei in 1946 to work in Johannesburg as a nurse.

In 1944 she married Walter and the couple had five children, Max Vuyisile, Mlungisi, Zwelakhe, Lindiwe and Nonkululeko. She helped form the Federation of South African Women in 1954 and the following year helped launch the Freedom Charter.

She joined the ANC Women's League and, when it was relaunched in 1990, she became its deputy president.

Walter, who spent many years imprisoned with Nelson Mandela on Robben Island, died in 2003 at the age of 90.

Her children include Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu , National Assembly speaker Max Sisulu and businessman Zwelakhe Sisulu, all influential South Africans.

ANC spokesman Brian Sokutu said the ruling party was 'shocked and saddened by the passing away of the longest-serving stalwart of the ANC'.

Pana 03/06/2011