Winnie in bid to get Madiba’s Qunu home

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela wants what she says is rightfully her family's.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela wants what she says is rightfully her family's.

Published Oct 15, 2014

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Johannesburg - Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has filed papers in the Mthatha High Court demanding control of Madiba’s Qunu home.

The papers were filed on Tuesday, bringing the action against the executors of Nelson Mandela’s estate, the Registrar of Deeds in Mthatha, the minister of rural development and land reform, President Jacob Zuma, the Nelson Mandela family trust, the Master of the Johannesburg High Court and Madiba’s widow Graça Machel.

Madikizela-Mandela previously wrote to Mandela’s executors to claim the property, and the matter has now progressed to court.

Mandela’s will was filed with the Master of the Johannesburg High Court, and his family trust oversees the Qunu property on behalf of the family.

The court papers are understood to run to about 200 pages.

“Certain portions of the will are being contested, it’s not the entire will being contested,” said attorney Mvuzo Notyesi, who is acting for Madikizela-Mandela.

He said both the immovable and movable property at Qunu were claimed.

Notyesi called the claim complex, saying there were no formal deeds for such rural properties as they were held by the chiefs.

“There was an error in that the late former president bequeathed property that did not belong to him,” he pointed out.

Notyesi said there was “ample evidence” to back Madikizela-Mandela’s claim, and some of this was in the confirmatory affidavits filed with the court papers.

One of those confirmatory affidavits backing the claim is by King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo, the traditional king of the area that includes Qunu.

Dalindyebo is still battling attempts to dethrone him over his behaviour, which includes public clashes with Zuma.

Part of the court application involves a request to the government for documents detailing how exactly Qunu was registered to Mandela, Notyesi said.

Madikizela-Mandela and Mandela were divorced on March 19, 1996.

The Qunu matter had not been dealt with then because “it was postponed, it was not dealt with because these are elderly people”, Notyesi said.

“They wanted to deal with it in a proper way.”

He said Madikizela-Mandela wanted control of the property so that her children and grandchildren would have access to it.

“She isn’t intending to take the house herself,” her lawyer emphasised.

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The Star

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