Johannesburg: South Africa might have had an Indian-origin First Lady if Amina Cachalia had agreed to a proposal of marriage from the country's first democratically elected President Nelson Mandela.
Mandela proposed to Amina, the widow of veteran ANC activist Yusuf Cachalia, after his 27 years of imprisonment and his marriage to Winnie Mandela ended. But, she dismissed his declarations of love, she wrote in her biography 'When Hope and History Rhyme'.
Amina, who died last month aged 83, revealed an intimate and affectionate side to the relationship between her and lifelong family friend Mandela in the book released after her death.
Her children, Ghaleb and Coco Cachalia both confirmed that their mother had confided in them about Mandela's marriage offer.
Mandela, 94, is currently in a Pretoria hospital being treated for a lung infection. He was elected the first black president of the rainbow nation in 1994.
