MTHATHA, South Africa: A dispute between factions of Nelson Mandela’s family over where the family grave should be went to court yesterday when his eldest daughter and more than a dozen other relatives sought an injunction against Mandela’s grandson, Mandla.
With the 94-year-old in critical condition in hospital, the state broadcaster SABC said a court in Mthatha had ordered Mandla to return the remains of three of Mandela’s children from the village of Mvezo, where the anti-apartheid icon was born and where Mandla is now an influential tribal chief, to Qunu, the village 20km away where Mandela spent most of his childhood.
The three bodies were taken from the Mandela family cemetery in Qunu in the Eastern Cape two years ago and reburied in Mvezo, where Mandla, 39, has built a memorial centre that many have interpreted as an attempt to ensure Mandela is buried there.
Local media have reported that the exhumations took place at the behest of Mandla — officially the clan patriarch after the death of his father, Makgatho, in 2005 — and without the consent of other family members including Mandela’s eldest daughter Makaziwe, who wants her father buried in Qunu.
Mandela has never given detailed instructions for his burial but his wills have expressed a general desire to be laid to rest in Qunu, 700km south of Johannesburg, the Mail and Guardian newspaper reported yesterday.
The spat between the Makaziwe-led Qunu faction and Mandla, an African National Congress (ANC) member of parliament, has been brewing for months.
Lawyer Wesley Hayes, representing Makaziwe and 15 other relatives, confirmed that papers had been filed in the Mthatha regional court against Mandla but refused to disclose details “because of the sensitivity of the case”.
Reuters
