Johannesburg - The Mandela daughters have offered to drop their multimillion-rand claim against their father as he battles for his life in a Pretoria hospital.
Nelson Mandela was admitted to the Mediclinic Heart Hospital on June 8, a day after two of his daughters, Makaziwe Mandela and Zenani Dlamini, South Africa’s ambassador to Argentina, were due to file responding papers in the case they opened against the 94-year-old earlier this year.
The Sunday Tribune understands that Makaziwe’s husband, Isaac Amuah, approached Madiba’s lawyer Bally Chuene recently, asking for a settlement so that the daughters would not be forced to effectively interrogate their father in a court of law.
Chuene could not be reached for comment on Saturday.
However, the proposed settlement is seen as an acknowledgement on the daughters’ part that they were pushing an unwinnable case.
The pair, represented by Madiba’s former lawyer Ismail Ayob, had filed papers in the Johannesburg High Court on April 8, two days after their father was released from hospital after suffering a severe bout of pneumonia.
The women wanted to sue for the rights to Madiba’s artworks and control of vast sums of money contained in various entities.
They demanded that Chuene, renowned advocate George Bizos SC and Housing Minister Tokyo Sexwale remove themselves as directors of Harmonieux, Magnifique and Tinancier Investments and Holdings and as trustees of the Mandela Trust, with immediate effect.
Essentially, they wanted a 2004 interdict set aside that barred Ayob from selling Madiba’s artworks and which also gave the former president the legal right to remove Ayob as the controlling head of his financial and legal affairs.
The move by the daughters was met with a curt legal response from the high-profile respondents, who insist they were legally installed by Madiba who had expressly wished that his family not have controlling power over the trusts’ assets.
The spat began two years ago when the daughters slapped a summons on the three trustees, demanding that they step down and release control of the purse strings. When they failed to do so, the matter ended up in court this year.
It is not clear when a settlement may be reached, if at all, as its contents are still vague. While the daughters appear willing to drop the case, it is unlikely the respondents will walk away from the matter.
Neither Sexwale nor Bizos responded to questions on Saturday, while attorney Michael Hart of Norton Rose, who is acting for them, could not be reached.
Ayob, the lawyer responsible for appointing the sisters as trustees without Mandela’s permission, would not elaborate on why the June 7 and then the June 14 deadlines had been missed.
“I consider this a mundane issue and your questions crass considering your colleagues are camped outside the hospital,” he said.
He could not be drawn further.
Makaziwe refused to answer questions from the Sunday Tribune, ending a phone call abruptly. An SMS asking why responding papers were not filed, and whether her husband Amuah had contacted Chuene went unanswered at the time of going to press on Saturday night.
Mandela’s grandson, Mandla Mandela, said he was not aware that his aunts had missed the deadline to file papers. He had strongly opposed and publicly rejected the case.
“Frankly I want nothing to do with it. The legal affairs of my aunts is not something I play a role in.”
The case has met with a hostile response from the South African public, who viewed the daughters’ move as distasteful.
In the days following their court action radio lines were jammed with callers expressing disgust, while social media platforms broadcast a groundswell of resentment towards the pair.
The common thread was a significant question: why did Madiba fear his family having financial control of money that was earmarked, in the main, for charitable projects?
Though senior members of society, the government and the ANC have kept their silence in public, behind closed doors they have expressed their disdain in no uncertain terms.
Since Madiba was admitted to hospital last week, Makaziwe and Zenani, who returned from Argentina on Monday last, have visited their father each day, along with members of the Mandela family.
In recent days, promised regular updates about the statesman’s health have been anything but, with those close to the situation insisting it is the family, rather than the presidency through which the updates are communicated, who are clamping down on the briefings.
Sunday Tribune