Nelson Mandela’s grandson Mandla has accused his relatives of being vengeful and seeking to control the former South African president’s legacy. His comments came as the bodies of three of Mandela’s children were being reburied at the anti-apartheid icon’s home village of Qunu. On Wednesday police exhumed the bodies from Mandla’s homestead, after court action by his relatives. Mandela, 94, remains “critical but stable” in hospital, a new update says. President Jacob Zuma issued a statement after visiting the hero of the fight against white minority rule in a Pretoria hospital. “Madiba [Mandela’s clan name] is receiving the best medical care from a multi-disciplinary team of health professionals who are at his bedside around the clock,” he said, again urging South Africans to celebrate his birthday later this month. Correspondents say there has been a long-running battle over Mandela’s legacy, but it has intensified as his health has deteriorated. Court papers filed last week revealed that he has been on life support. He was admitted on 8 June with a recurring lung infection. His wife Graca Machel on Thursday said Mandela was sometimes “uncomfortable, but he has never been in pain”. The dispute between Mandla and his relatives is linked to where Mandela will be buried.
‘Mandela’s assets’
A group of the Mandela family, including his daughter Makaziwe and Mrs Machel, last week went to court, accusing Mandla of unlawfully relocating the graves of the three children to his village of Mvezo. Mandla had relocated the graves to ensure that his grandfather would be buried in Mvezo, Makaziwe said in an affidavit, South Africa’s Mail & Guardian newspaper reports. This was in defiance of the wishes of Mandela, who wants to be buried in the nearby village of Qunu, where he grew up, she is quoted as saying. The court ruled that the bodies should be re-interned in the family graveyard in Qunu. A hearse and a large contingent of police arrived with the bodies for the reburial after forensic tests confirmed that they were Mandela’s children.
