Much like her late father, Mandela spent her life actively advocating for the betterment of South Africa . The world became better acquainted with Mandela in 1985 when she read her father’s rejection letter of President P.W. Botha’s offer to release him from jail. He would later be released in 1990. Her life in the decades since have largely been occupied by political advocacy and decision-making. In a statement mourning her passing , South African President Cyril Ramaphosa noted that Mandela had, over the course of her life, acted as the “Deputy President of the Soweto Youth Congress, was a member of the Release Mandela Campaign, and was an underground operative of Umkhonto weSizwe.”