Johannesburg - The family of ailing former president Nelson Mandela must reconcile their differences, ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe urged on Tuesday.
“That 1/8family disagreement 3/8 is a worrying factor but the family must look at Mandela and see that Mandela was a unifier,” he said on the sidelines of an African National Congress prayer service for Mandela in Johannesburg.
“They must reconcile. They must talk to each other and find a solid common goal.”
Eastern Cape High Court Judge Lusindiso Pakade ruled in Mthatha on Tuesday that the legal battle about the Mandela family's gravesite would be open to the public.
The court granted 16 members of the family a court order last week instructing Mandela's grandson Mandla Mandela to return to Qunu the remains of three family members he exhumed and reburied in his home village of Mvezo two years ago.
The three exhumed graves are those of Nelson Mandela's eldest son and Mandla Mandela's father, Makgatho Mandela, who died in 2005; Mandela's first daughter Makaziwe, who died as an infant in 1948; and Mandela's second son Madiba Thembekile, who died in a car accident in 1969.
Mandla Mandela is the official head of the Madiba clan and an ANC MP.
He was named chief of Mvezo after the death of Makgatho Mandela in 2005, and has claimed that Mvezo, where he is building a multi-million rand hotel, is the birthplace of the Mandelas and holds historic significance.
Last week a Mandela family member told Sapa that when the matter was raised at a recent family meeting in Qunu, Mandla Mandela refused to answer why he moved the graves without consulting the family and stormed out of the meeting.
Mandela was admitted to a hospital in Pretoria on June 8 with a recurring lung infection. On Monday, the presidency said his condition remained critical, but stable. - Sapa