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Court Orders Mandela Grandson to Return Family Remains Police Break Cemetery Gates After Ruling in Mandela Squabble
(about 1 hour later)
JOHANNESBURG — A judge in the Eastern Cape High Court, near the small, rural villages where Nelson Mandela was born and raised, ordered his eldest grandson on Wednesday to return the bodies of several family members to the village where Mr. Mandela, the former South African president and anti-apartheid leader, has said he wishes to be buried. JOHANNESBURG — An ugly squabble between Nelson Mandela’s eldest grandson and more than a dozen other family members over the bodies of three of his children intensified Wednesday afternoon as the police broke down the gates surrounding the burial site to fulfill a judge’s order that the bodies be exhumed and returned to a nearby village where the ailing Mr. Mandela himself is to be buried.
The feud over the bodies between the grandson, Mandla Mandela, and a coterie of other family members led by his eldest daughter, Makaziwe Mandela, has riveted the attention of South Africans as Mr. Mandela, 94, remains in critical condition in a Pretoria hospital, clinging to life. Earlier in the day, a judge in the Eastern Cape High Court in Mthatha, near the small, rural villages where Mr. Mandela was born and raised, ordered the grandson, Mandla Mandela, to return the bodies immediately from the small village of Mvezo, where Mr. Mandela was born, to the nearby village of Qunu, where he was raised and where he has said he wishes to be buried.
A lawyer for the Mandela family said shortly after the ruling that they had received word that Mandla Mandela intended to continue to fight the court ruling. Mandla Mandela is not opposed to the bodies’ exhumation, his spokesman, Freddy Pelusa, said in a statement after the ruling, but he intends to appeal the ruling in order to clear his name. Hearses arrived at the Mvezo site by midafternoon to transport the bodies and the police used a pickax to break through a gate surrounding the property to begin the exhumation.
Among the bodies are those of three of Nelson Mandela’s children: Mandla Mandela’s father, Makgatho Mandela, who died in 2005; his first daughter, also named Makaziwe, who died as an infant in 1948; and another son, Madiba Thembekile Mandela, who died in a traffic accident in 1969. Meanwhile, South Africa’s Mail & Guardian newspaper said it had obtained an affidavit from the court case dated Friday in which the 16 Mandela family members who had petitioned to have the bodies returned to Qunu did so because Mr. Mandela, 94, a former South African president, was in “perilous health” and was “assisted in breathing by a life support machine.”
The judge gave the grandson just hours to begin exhuming the bodies in the village of Mvezo and returning them to the village of Qunu, the former president’s chosen burial site. “The anticipation of his impending death is based on real and substantial grounds,” the affidavit said. “The applicants are desirous of burying their father and committing him to the earth in which his descendants’ remains lie.”
“It will remain a private matter,” Makaziwe Mandela told a cluster of journalists on the courthouse steps in Mthatha, refusing to comment further. A lawyer for the family, Wesley Hayes, was a bit more forthcoming, according to local media reports. “We are delighted with the outcome,” he said. The affidavit, the paper reported, said the family believed that Mandla Mandela wanted the bodies to remain in Mvezo, his own home village, for financial gain, in anticipation that Nelson Mandela would also be buried there.
Mandla Mandela made no immediate comment. The bodies to be exhumed are those of three of Nelson Mandela’s children: Mandla Mandela’s father, Makgatho Mandela, who died in 2005; his first daughter, also named Makaziwe, who died as an infant in 1948; and another son, Madiba Thembekile Mandela, who died in a traffic accident in 1969.
The feud between Mandla Mandela and the other family members, led by his eldest daughter, Makaziwe Mandela, has riveted the attention of South Africans as Mr. Mandela remains in critical condition in a Pretoria hospital, clinging to life.
The court initially ordered Mandla Mandela on Friday to exhume the bodies, but he fought the order, leading to three more days of court proceedings this week. In her order Wednesday morning, Justice Lusindiso Pakade called Mandla Mandela’s actions “scandalous” and ordered the bodies exhumed within hours.
Mandla, who succeeded his grandfather as head of the Mvezo Traditional Council, issued a statement through his spokesman, Mr. Pelusa, saying that he did not oppose moving the bodies, but did not believe that he had received a fair hearing.
“He will therefore abide by the court decision while at the same time continuing to fight for his right to put on record his side of the story,” Mr. Pelusa said.
Mandla Mandela promised to answer any questions from reporters about the legal fight on Thursday.
He “has had a lot of allegations and dirt thrown in his direction by all sorts of individuals baying for a few minutes of fame and media attention at his expense,” Mr. Pelusa said.
For their part, the other family members — who include Nelson Mandela’s wife, Graça Machel — were said to be pleased by the court ruling, but did not speak publicly about it.
“It will remain a private matter,” Makaziwe Mandela told a cluster of journalists on the courthouse steps, refusing to comment further. A lawyer for the family, Wesley Hayes, was a bit more forthcoming, according to local media reports. “We are delighted with the outcome,” he said.
The feud over the burial site erupted after a meeting of the entire family last week in Qunu as they prepared for Mr. Mandela’s funeral.The feud over the burial site erupted after a meeting of the entire family last week in Qunu as they prepared for Mr. Mandela’s funeral.
Family members said that Mandla Mandela had moved the bodies in 2011 from Qunu to Mvezo, where he is the head of the local tribal council, without their permission or knowledge, and that he refused to move them back. Family members said Mandla Mandela had moved the bodies in 2011 from Qunu to Mvezo without their permission or knowledge.