Tag: Rhodes University Law Clinic

Why is Rhodes University really funding the ‘indigent’ Mandelas?

Indigent Mandelas
Indigent Mandelas and a security guard

The Sunday Times revealed recently that the Rhodes University law clinic provided funding to Makaziwe Mandela and 15 other members of the Mandela clan to engage in a public spat about their inheritance.

The funding helped an order forcing Mandla Mandela to move the remains of three of Nelson Mandela’s children from Mvezo Great Place to Qunu which the Eastern Cape High Court in Mthatha issued.

The university is standing by its law clinic’s decision to fund 16 members of the Mandela family, who apparently qualified for aid as indigents.

Part of the reason for the clinic’s decision, the university said on Tuesday, was because Mandla Mandela appeared to be silencing the voices of women in the Mandela family.

This meant that the case fell within the clinic’s mandate to pursue cases that “impact on the human rights and socio-economic conditions of disadvantaged communities”. The university says Hayes was acting in accordance with this “strategic objective”.

Their instructing attorney in that court application was Wesley Hayes, who is also a the deputy director of the law clinic. Hayes was previously known to the Mandela family.

Also on Sunday, Mandla Mandela visited his grandfather in hospital in Pretoria, declaring afterwards that Nelson Mandela’s health was improving. Makaziwe’s laywer earlier described Mandela’s state as “vegetative”.

He said he had asked his lawyers to write to the Rhodes vice-chancellor Saleem Badat to discuss the reasons why the law clinic saw fit to provide the funding.

An objective of the Rhodes University Law Clinic is to provide free legal advice and services to people who are deemed to be indigent.

Critics say there is no logic in the university’s stance that “a number” of the Mandela applicants were indigent.

“This is the Mandela family we are talking about. How does a Mandela family member become indigent?” said Mandla’s laywer Pilusa.

He said Mandla Mandela suspected the university had an alternative agenda in funding his aunt and others’ court application “that would force them [the clinic] to depart from the normal procedure, which looks at real indigent families”.

“Even the reasons given, that one or two of the Mandelas are indigent, doesn’t make any sense. It’s really a very odd situation,” said Pilusa. – M&G

Mandela family ‘cannot afford legal fees’

The American educated Makaziwe Mandela
The American educated Makaziwe Mandela

The Mandela family members, who took Mandla Mandela to court over the relocation of the graves of former president Nelson Mandela’s children, were too poor to afford their own lawyers, the Sunday Times reported.

The Rhodes University Law clinic told the newspaper it had established some of the Mandela family members were “indigent” but would not reveal the criteria used to determine their eligibility for funding the case.

“A call was made to the management of the law clinic requesting permission to take on the matter,” director of special projects at the university Susan Smailes was quoted as saying.

“Permission was granted as the management was satisfied that there was compliance with the means test.”

When Sunday Times asked Ndaba Mandela whether his family members had requested legal aid and which of his relatives he considered to be indigent, he said: “Be careful of your sources.”

Makaziwe Mandela did not respond to requests for comment from the newspaper.

The clinic states on its website that it provided free legal services to the “indigent people from Grahamstown and the surrounding area, who cannot afford to pay a private practitioner” as one of its primary objectives.

“We find their claim that some members of the Mandela family are indigent absurd,” said Mandla Mandela’s spokesman Freddy Pilusa.

The court case referred to the graves 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.

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

The ailing anti-apartheid icon was admitted into a Pretoria hospital on June 8 with a recurring lung infection. – Sapa