Zelda la Grange was born in 1970. She began working as a secretary for the government in 1992, in the Department of State Expenditure. In 1993 she moved to the Human Resources division and a year later she joined the office of the first democratically elected President of South Africa as a Senior Ministerial Typist. She was promoted to one of President Mandela’s three Private Secretaries in 1997, and in 1999 Nelson Mandela requested her to remain in his service beyond retirement. In 2002 she left government and became full time employee of the Nelson Mandela Foundation. She served Nelson Mandela in different capacities over nineteen years, as Typist, Private Secretary, Manager of his office, Spokesperson and Aide-decamp. When he passed on in December 2013, she was his Personal Assistant.
