ANC is trying to confirm with Winnie Mandela if she told a British newspaper her ex-husband Nelson Mandela had "let down" the nation.

Winnie Mandela's scathing comments about the internationally respected statesman were reported in the London Evening Standard this week.

She was quoted as saying: "Mandela agreed to a bad deal for the blacks. Economically, we are still on the outside. The economy is very much 'white'. It has a few token blacks, but so many who gave their life in the struggle have died unrewarded."

South Africa's ruling party ANC wants to confirm her statements before commenting. "She is away. We have been trying to get hold of her but we haven't managed to reach her so far", ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu said.

During the interview Mrs Mandela also expressed disappointment that her former husband had lost his revolutionary spirit. "Look what they make him do. The great Mandela. He has no control or say any more," she said. "Mandela is now a corporate foundation. He is wheeled out globally to collect the money and he is content doing that. The ANC have effectively sidelined him but they keep him as a figurehead for the sake of appearance."

Mrs Mandela campaigned tirelessly for her husband's release during his 27-year imprisonment under white-minority apartheid rule. She separated from Nelson Mandela in 1992, two years after his release, but she remains a popular South African figure in own her own right.

However, her image was tarnished by a series of scandals including a kidnapping and assault conviction over the killing of a young activist, and a 2003 conviction for fraud.

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source: AFP