Police Break Cemetery Gates After Ruling in Mandela Squabble

Police Break Cemetery Gates After Ruling in Mandela Squabble
JOHANNESBURG — An ugly squabble between Nelson Mandela's eldest
grandson and more than a dozen other family members over the bodies of
three of his children intensified Wednesday afternoon as the police
broke down the gates surrounding the burial site to fulfill a judge's
order that the bodies be exhumed and returned to a nearby village
where the ailing Mr. Mandela himself is to be buried.
Earlier in the day, a judge in the Eastern Cape High Court in Mthatha,
near the small, rural villages where Mr. Mandela was born and raised,
ordered the grandson, Mandla Mandela, to return the bodies immediately
from the small village of Mvezo, where Mr. Mandela was born, to the
nearby village of Qunu, where he was raised and where he has said he
wishes to be buried.

Mandla Mandela is not opposed to the bodies' exhumation, his
spokesman, Freddy Pelusa, said in a statement after the ruling, but he
intends to appeal the ruling in order to clear his name. Hearses
arrived at the Mvezo site by midafternoon to transport the bodies and
the police used a pickax to break through a gate surrounding the
property to begin the exhumation.

Meanwhile, South Africa's Mail & Guardian newspaper said it had
obtained an affidavit from the court case dated Friday in which the 16
Mandela family members who had petitioned to have the bodies returned
to Qunu did so because Mr. Mandela, 94, a former South African
president, was in "perilous health" and was "assisted in breathing by
a life support machine."

"The anticipation of his impending death is based on real and
substantial grounds," the affidavit said. "The applicants are desirous
of burying their father and committing him to the earth in which his
descendants' remains lie."

The affidavit, the paper reported, said the family believed that
Mandla Mandela wanted the bodies to remain in Mvezo, his own home
village, for financial gain, in anticipation that Nelson Mandela would
also be buried there.

The bodies to be exhumed are those of three of Nelson Mandela's
children: Mandla Mandela's father, Makgatho Mandela, who died in 2005;
his first daughter, also named Makaziwe, who died as an infant in
1948; and another son, Madiba Thembekile Mandela, who died in a
traffic accident in 1969.

The feud between Mandla Mandela and the other family members, led by
his eldest daughter, Makaziwe Mandela, has riveted the attention of
South Africans as Mr. Mandela remains in critical condition in a
Pretoria hospital, clinging to life.

The court initially ordered Mandla Mandela on Friday to exhume the
bodies, but he fought the order, leading to three more days of court
proceedings this week. In her order Wednesday morning, Justice
Lusindiso Pakade called Mandla Mandela's actions "scandalous" and
ordered the bodies exhumed within hours.

Mandla, who succeeded his grandfather as head of the Mvezo Traditional
Council, issued a statement through his spokesman, Mr. Pelusa, saying
that he did not oppose moving the bodies, but did not believe that he
had received a fair hearing.

"He will therefore abide by the court decision while at the same time
continuing to fight for his right to put on record his side of the
story," Mr. Pelusa said.

Mandla Mandela promised to answer any questions from reporters about
the legal fight on Thursday.

He "has had a lot of allegations and dirt thrown in his direction by
all sorts of individuals baying for a few minutes of fame and media
attention at his expense," Mr. Pelusa said.

For their part, the other family members — who include Nelson
Mandela's wife, Graça Machel — were said to be pleased by the court
ruling, but did not speak publicly about it.

"It will remain a private matter," Makaziwe Mandela told a cluster of
journalists on the courthouse steps, refusing to comment further. A
lawyer for the family, Wesley Hayes, was a bit more forthcoming,
according to local media reports. "We are delighted with the outcome,"
he said.

The feud over the burial site erupted after a meeting of the entire
family last week in Qunu as they prepared for Mr. Mandela's funeral.

Family members said Mandla Mandela had moved the bodies in 2011 from
Qunu to Mvezo without their permission or knowledge.