Winnie Mandela, left, looks on with, South African president Nelson Mandela, center, and his wife Graca Machel, right, at the gallery in Parliament in Cape Town, South Africa, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010 JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A British newspaper's interview quoting Nelson Mandela's ex-wife bitterly criticizing the anti-apartheid icon has prompted outraged headlines in South Africa.

In Tuesday's Evening Standard, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela is quoted as saying the former South African president "agreed to a bad deal for the blacks."

The governing African National Congress said Wednesday it would not comment until its leaders could discuss the article with Madikizela-Mandela. She was traveling Wednesday.

Mandela and his second wife divorced in 1996, six years after he walked free following 27 years in prison. In recent years, she has often joined Mandela and his third wife at family gatherings, and spoke glowingly of him last month on the 20th anniversary of his release from prison.