In 1985 she returned to Soweto to continue the struggle in defiance of the security forces. But she found herself in the centre of controversy within the ANC when in 1986 she apparently made a statement at a township rally encouraging the necklacing (this is where a petrol-soaked tyre is placed around a victim's neck and set alight)of those who supported or collaborated with apartheid. Throughout the late 1980s, Winnie Mandela continued to be a controversial figure. In 1989 the body of a murdered boy - Stompie Moeketsi - was discovered at her home and allegations were made against her including murder, assault and abduction. In 1990 Nelson Mandela was finally released from prison. He held fast to his belief in Winnie's innocence saying that she had been framed. At her 1991 trial, she received a suspended sentence for kidnapping.

Interviewed in 1986, she described the effect that years of harassment, solitary confinement and separation from her husband had had upon her. It didn't just make her tough - she uses the word "brutalised".

 "All I know is I am terribly brutalised inside. I know my soul is scarred, I know I am bleeding inside all the time. I know the pain of my people's suffering, the pain of having a husband behind bars for 25 years, the pain of bringing up children under the atmosphere I brought them up, is so great inside… But what has happened is that hasn't brutalised me to an extent of being consumed in hate."