Once Nelson Mandela was in prison, Winnie felt that she must take up the fight to try to end apartheid in South Africa. At the age of 26 she was left alone with her two daughters aged only 4 and 5. The security forces recognised the possible significance of her role and placed her under constant observation. She also complained of police harassment - they carried out searches of her home. She found it difficult to explain what was happening to her children.

 "It was a day to day kind of existence. We were harassed from the moment their father was out of the picture. The government tried to break one in a number of ways and it was extremely difficult to explain to very young children why it was so. It was extremely difficult to explain… the presence of the security forces in their home, why we were being raided, why I would be searched, why I would be followed if I was not a criminal. It was very difficult to explain that one had committed political crimes in the eyes of the state."

Despite the police presence, Winnie Mandela continued to work secretly against the government. She was twice detained under the Terrorism Act and held in solitary confinement. She says that she was tortured. In 1977 she was banished to Brandfort a small town where the locals did not even speak her language. She was still able to speak to foreign reporters and was constantly in the news.