Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, ex-wife of late South African President Nelson Mandela, has gone to court in an attempt to stop Mandla Mandela and the AbaThembu royal family meeting at the Mandela familyQunu home which she claims.
Winnie wants the meeting stopped because, according to her lawyer, she was not consulted when the meeting was planned last month.
Though the meeting is scheduled for tomorrow (Jan 15), Judge Zamani Nhlanguela refused to grant her a stop order because her application was incomplete.
The Judge struck the matter from the roll on Tuesday saying that “not everything was in order with the application”, citing the omission of some executors (certain family members) of Nelson Mandela’s estate.
Winnie’s lawyer, Mvuzo Notyesi, is now scrambling to go back to court today if he was to overcome the setback and get the meeting stopped.
“The judge ruled that in the absence of all the executors in the application, the matter could not stand.
“Now I’m trying to beat the time and we will have to send the papers back to court before the scheduled meeting.
“I’m working on the application as we speak”, he said.
The issues tabled for the meeting include Madikizela-Mandela’s claim of ownership of the house, Mandela’s widow Graça Machel’s position in the family and who should be its head in the absence of Madiba.
Also to be discussed, according to the royal household, was the recent slaughter of a cow by grandson Mandla Mandela’s younger brother, Ndaba, to mark the end of the mourning period for Mandela, which was done without informing the elders, or Mandla as tradition requires.
According to Winnie’s lawyer “by calling a meeting at the house, Mandla, cited as the first respondent and his ally Daludumo Mtirara, second respondent, would be “invading” the property as they did not reside there, nor were they in charge of the homestead.
Other reports quoted Madikizela-Mandela as arguing that should the meeting go ahead, there could be violence and damage to property as sources who were present when the meeting was planned had commented that the situation was volatile.
Mtirara said they were not concerned about speculation that there could be violence at the meeting.
“We are happy with this outcome and would also like to highlight that this matter was not even supposed to have been taken to court.
“We hope that this is indication enough that whatever differences we might have can be handled within our traditional bounds, without running to the court,” he said.
At press time it was not clear when exactly Madikizela-Mandela and her team will be returning to court again to file fresh papers.