The late activist, Fatima Meer's house should be declared a national heritage site, said Winnie Madikizela-Mandela at her state funeral at the Durban exhibition centre.

"I feel she was never truly recognised for the work that she has done," she said.

"I will work for her home to be declared a national heritage site. May her soul rest in peace," said Madikizela-Mandela.

Meer ,81, died on Friday afternoon after suffering a stroke two weeks ago.

An emotional Madikizela-Mandela told about 200 people who had gathered to pay their last respect to the political activist of their special friendship and how they helped each other during the struggle.

"This is a very emotional moment. Fatima represented my world as a friend, mother and comrade. My world was complete with her," she said.

Madikizela-Mandela said during the struggle days Meer would look after her children while her former husband, Nelson Mandela, was in prison and when she was detained.

"When I met Fatima I was struck by the wonderful person that she was. The role that Ishmael [Meer's husband] and Fatima played is one of the enduring struggles of the movement," she said.

She also said she was physically exhausted from returning from her week long trip to America.

"I am physically exhausted from a week of travel in the US and emotionally drained from the media [attention] on my arrival," Madikizela-Mandela said.

She also reiterated that the interview with journalist, Nadira Naipaul, that made newspaper headlines recently was not true.

"The so-called interview is a figment of their imagination," she said.

In the interview, which raised eyebrows in South Africa, Madikizela-Mandela is quoted as saying Mandela had become "a corporate foundation", who was "wheeled out to collect the money".

According to Naipaul, Madikizela-Mandela also called Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu a "cretin".

Naipaul further wrote that Madikizela-Mandela told her "this name Mandela is an albatross around the necks of my family" and that she could not forgive her former husband for accepting the Nobel Peace Prize with apartheid's last President FW de Klerk.