Mthatha - Former president Nelson Mandela's health is “perilous”, according to an affidavit filed in the Eastern Cape High Court by more than a dozen members of his family.
“Affidavits will be provided at the hearing of this application from his (Mandela's) treating physicians that he is assisted in breathing by a life support machine,” the document from Makaziwe Mandela and others said.
“The anticipation of his impending death is based on real and substantial grounds.”
The papers were filed last Friday, but only made available in court on Wednesday.
Madiba's eldest grandson, and chief of Mvezo, Mandla Mandela moved the remains of Mandela's three children from Qunu to Mvezo in 2011, without the consent of his relatives.
The high court in Mthatha ruled against Mandla Mandela on Wednesday, after he tried to have a court order compelling him to return the remains to Qunu overturned.
In his ruling on the graves of the former president's three children, Mthatha high court Judge Lusindiso Pakade ordered the sheriff of the court to exhume the graves at Mandla Mandela's property in Mvezo at 3pm and move them to the family farm in Qunu for reburial.
Mandla Mandela has since launched a second application to rescind this court order.
The graves are those of Mandela's eldest son and Mandla Mandela's father Makgatho Mandela, who died in 2005; Mandela's first daughter Makaziwe Mandela, who died as an infant in 1948; and Mandela's second son Madiba Thembekile, who died in a car accident in 1969. - Sapa