Mandela family feud

Mandelas want money

The Mandela family is heading back to court today.

This time it’s over access to money that has accrued in trusts the elder statesman set up for the upkeep of his family.

Lawyers representing Madiba’s daughters and grandchildren will square up against his appointed trustees and confidants.

Among the latter are Mandela’s long-time friend and lawyer, George Bizos, and politician and former Robben Island prisoner Tokyo Sexwale. At issue is money.

The Mandela-appointed trustees are having none of it. They say their overriding duty is to carry out Madiba’s wishes.

Mandela-appointed trustee Tokyo Sexwale said: “We’ll stick with it. It is at this time that those he asked to do certain things must stand firm. If we don’t, that would be behaving like traitors.”

The two sides have spent the past few weeks trying to reach a settlement but failed.

To make matters worse, the lawyer representing Mandela’s family, Ismail Ayob, has quit.

The family has since found a new lawyer. They say nothing and no one is going to deter them from fighting on.

Former president Nelson Mandela has begun his 52nd day in hospital. – SABC

Mandela family back in court only day after global birthday celebrations

The Mandela family feud ostensibly about graves, continued unabated on Friday.

Lawyers for former president Nelson Mandela’s grandson Mandla Mandela returned to the High Court in Mthatha on Thursday to seek the return of the remains of three family members to Mvezo.

“We brought an application on July 3 to rescind a court decision and the matter was set down for today 1/8Thursday 3/8,” said his lawyer Gary Jansen.

The court had ordered Mandla Mandela to move the remains from Mvezo back to Qunu.

Lawyers for other members of the Mandela family filed a notice opposing this application. They had 14 days to file opposing papers.

On July 3 the court ordered him to return the remains of his grandfather’s three children to Qunu from Mvezo, where he moved them two years ago. It then dismissed his application to rescind its decision as frivolous.

The remains are those of Mandela’s eldest son Madiba Thembekile, who died in a car accident in 1969; Mandla Mandela’s father Makgatho Mandela, who died in 2005; and Mandela’s first daughter Makaziwe Mandela, who died as an infant in 1948.

Wesley Hayes, for Makaziwe Mandela and 14 other Mandela relatives, confirmed the matter was in court on Thursday.

“I can confirm that the matter was erroneously placed on the roll by the respondent’s (Mandla Mandela’s) attorneys,” he said.

“Today saw the removal of the matter. The next step for us would be to file the opposing affidavit in due course.”

On July 6, Jansen said a complaint would be lodged against the Mandela family’s lawyers for misleading the courts on the condition of former president Nelson Mandela’s health.

The complaint relates to an affidavit submitted by the 15 members of the Mandela family in an application to exhume the remains of the three.

Jansen said the Mandela family’s lawyers had used the affidavit to mislead the court. – Sapa

‘Mandela is not in a vegetative state’

The American educated Makaziwe Mandela says her grandfather is in a vegetative state

Doctors treating former president Nelson Mandela have denied that he is in a vegetative state, the Presidency said on Thursday.

“We confirm our earlier statement released this afternoon after President Jacob Zuma visited Madiba in hospital that Madiba remains in a critical, but stable condition,” spokesman Mac Maharaj said in a statement.

He said Mandela was under the care of a “multi-disciplinary” panel of medical experts drawn from the South African Military Health Services, the public and private sector, and universities.

“Under this panel, a team of doctors, nurses, paramedics and other health professionals attend to Madiba on a 24-hour basis.”

The statement from the Presidency came after court documents surfaced stating that Mandela was in a “permanent vegetative state” and that his family had been advised to turn off his life-support machine.

The certificate of urgency dated June 27 and submitted to the Eastern Cape High Court was widely reported by local and international media. A copy was obtained by Sapa.

In it, an advocate for the American educated Makaziwe Mandela said he had been advised by his instructing attorney that Mandela’s condition had “taken a turn for the worst (sic)” and that the “Mandela family” – ie Makaziwe and her supporters – have “been advised by the medical practitioners that his life-support machines should be switched off”.

“Rather than prolonging his suffering, the Mandela family is exploring this option as a very real probability.”

The document was attributed to David Smith, an advocate representing 15 members of the “Mandela family” in a court case against Mandela’s grandson, Mandla Mandela.

In the document, Smith described Mandela’s health as perilous, and said he was in a permanent vegetative state and was being assisted in breathing by a life-support machine.

“Affidavits will be provided, at the hearing of this application, from his treating physicians that he is in a permanent vegetative state and is assisted in breathing by a life-support machine,” he said.

“The anticipation of his impending death is based on real and substantial grounds.”

A later version of the document filed in the court omitted the paragraphs referring to Mandela’s “vegetative state” and the advice by physicians to take Mandela off life support.

A lawyer for the Mandela family later said the original certificate of urgency was “merely a submission outside of court”.

“To the extent there is speculation, a certificate of urgency was filed in terms of the practice of our court,” said Wesley Hayes, who represented the family in the dispute with Mandla Mandela about the graves of his father and his grandfather’s other two children.

“The certificate is not evidence, but merely submissions on why a matter should be heard outside ordinary court sittings.”

Hayes said the ruling on the urgency of the matter had been made “in camera” and that this “would extend to the contents of the certificate of urgency”.

“Further than that we have no comment,” he said.

On Wednesday, the Eastern Cape High Court ordered Mandla Mandela to return the remains of his grandfather’s three children to Qunu from Mvezo, where he moved them two years ago.

The remains were those of Mandela’s eldest son Madiba Thembekile, who died in a car accident in 1969; Mandla Mandela’s father Makgatho Mandela, who died in 2005; and Mandela’s first daughter Makaziwe Mandela, who died as an infant in 1948.

The bones were re-buried at a ceremony at a gravesite at Nelson Mandela’s home in Qunu on Thursday afternoon. – Sapa

Mandela’s grave, the money-spinner

Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Mandla Mandela, has prepared part of his homestead – the multimillion-rand Mvezo Great Place – as a place of pilgrimage for people keen to see the ailing statesman’s grave.

This was the argument in an affidavit signed by 16 Mandela relatives, including his eldest daughter, Makaziwe, his wife Graça Machel and his ex-wife Winnie Madikizela Mandela, in an application to the Eastern Cape High Court in Mthatha.

Mandla “constructed buildings” at Mvezo Great Place, hoping Nelson Mandela would be buried at Mvezo and not in Qunu.

“The first respondent (Mandla) wants to force the burial of Mr Nelson Mandela, when the time should come, at a place of the first respondent’s choosing. By securing the remains of Mr Mandela’s family, the first respondent hopes to secure the remains as to Mandela himself,” the family’s affidavit read.

Mandla established their remains in Mvezo, knowing Nelson Mandela wanted to be buried close to these remains, the family said.

That would enable Mandla to make money from Nelson Mandela’s death and benefit from his “illegal removal” of the graves.

He planned to derive income generated by visitors to Nelson Mandela’s gravesite, the affidavit said.

The attempt to have Mandela buried at Mveza would have “undermined” his wishes.

It was likely that the place of his burial would be a much-visited heritage site, and it was “conceivable that such a heritage site has a high potential to generate monetary gain”.

“Indeed, there is evidence to suggest the first respondent (Mandla) has already begun preparations at The Great Place, Mvezo, inclusive of the construction of buildings in furtherance of such gain.”

The family urged the court not to allow Mandla to “profit from his unlawful activity”.

“The remains of the three deceased in question must be returned in all haste to their lawful resting place.”

It has been reported by various newspapers during the past week that Mvezo Great Place has been upgraded to the tune of millions of rands.

In 2010, however all roads led to Mvezo, birthplace of Nelson Mandela, on July 18, where President Jacob Zuma and Madiba’s grandson, Chief Zwelivelile Mandela, led scores of people in the official national celebration of Nelson Mandela Day, on the great man’s 92nd birthday. Madiba, himself, spent the day in Johannesburg with family.

While several thousand local residents of surrounding villages made the trek to Mvezo on foot, reminiscent of a fan walk during the recently concluded Fifa 2010 World Cup, the gleaming cars of dignitaries – 1000 VIPs were expected – snaked along the pitted dirt road that leads from the N2 Highway, about 40 kilometres south of Mthatha.

Those present included Minister of Arts and Culture, Lulu Xingwana, AbaThembu King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo, ANC Chief Whip, Mathole Motshekga, head of the UDM, Bantu Holomisa, DA parliamentary leader, Athol Trollip. the President’s wife, Thobeka Madiba, and Chief Mandela’s wife, Anais Grimaud. – Oryxmedia/Cape Argus