Directory enquiries generic diclofenac potassium Mandela had five surviving children - three from his first marriage to Evelyn and two with Winnie. But in 1969, his eldest son, Thembekile, died in a car accident. A few months earlier, his mother, Nosekeni, had also died. At this time, Winnie was jailed by the regime and spent 13 months in solitary confinement. This combination of tragedies came close to breaking Mandela. “I do not have words to express the sorrow or the loss I felt,” he wrote.