WINNIE MANDELA ENDS TRADITIONAL MOURNING, SAYS ‘NELSON SWINDLED, CONNED AND BETRAYED ME’

Ready to fight: Winnie Mandela wants to win back the land she claims is hers

Just one year after his death, Nelson Mandela’s controversial ex-wife Winnie is launching a vicious legal battle, saying the former South African president swindled her out of her rightful inheritance – 250 acres of his ancestral homeland that includes his final resting place. In a lawsuit that exposes the bitter rancour within the Mandela family and challenges the former South African President’s will, 78-year-old Winnie Madikizela-Mandela claims that the land in Qunu was given to her when they were still married and that he had no right to secretly transfer the homestead into his own name.

Accusing Mandela of ‘land fraud’ and ‘betrayal’, the case will inflame tensions right to the top of the country’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC).

Last week, launching her legal bid to have the land returned to her, she claimed the transfer to Mandela was carried out ‘under a cloud of darkness and secrets’ and that, although she expected nothing from his will, she did not expect to be cheated out of what was ‘rightfully’ hers.

With a special cleansing ritual held on the anniversary of Mandela’s death two weeks ago, the customary year-long period of silent mourning came to an end, freeing Winnie to speak out. Expressing for the first time her shock and sadness over the terms of his will, she told The Mail on Sunday that she and her daughters felt ‘betrayed’.

‘I believe they are as shocked as I am to hear of this betrayal,’ she said at her home in Soweto, Johannesburg.

‘I will submit evidence that shows the transfer of ownership was illegal and wrong. I still hope and pray it will not go to court, but if it does it will become very ugly.’

Mrs Madikizela-Mandela is suing, among others, the executors, the legal authorities, the Minister of Land Affairs and Graca Machel, Mandela’s third wife and widow. She is even suing President Jacob Zuma because he tried to block her application to see relevant documents in government archives.

The dispute centres around 250 acres of land in Qunu, including the plot where Mandela is now buried under a black marble headstone.

Winnie, who was divorced in 1996 from the man credited with forging the ‘Rainbow Nation’, claims that the land in Qunu was given to her when they were still married and that he had no right to secretly transfer the homestead into his own name.

Her lawyers say they have unearthed documents that show Mandela approached tribal leaders at the time of his bitter split from Winnie, persuading them to draw up new title deeds in his name.

‘I had no idea that he had done this,’ she said. ‘He used his

 Winnie, second from left, pays her respects at the graveside of her ex-husband in Qunu

influence as former President to persuade the Ebotwe Tribal Authority to give him ownership and he donated R150,000 [worth £15,000 at the time] to those who helped him. The funds were supposed to be put in a trust, but my lawyers can find no trace of it.

‘He went over the heads of the Qunu community who know the land is mine and he bypassed the authority of King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo who personally allocated it to me.’

Accusing Mandela of land fraud, she added: ‘I could not believe he would give my lands away. I actually thought there must be something very wrong with the will and that he would never have signed it if he was in his right mind. But now I have documents and memoranda showing the whole picture.

‘There were attempts to prevent me from having access to documents but I fought against it and I can now show that there are unsigned forms which should have been signed by the head of the tribal authority.’

She added: ‘The whole process is riddled with insurmountable irregularities which my lawyers say vitiate the entire process and render it a nullity.’

The land Winnie is claiming includes a rambling sandstone house that Mandela retired to in the final few years of his life, after serving one term as South Africa’s first black president. It is a priceless addition to the Mandela heritage trail which includes his childhood home, school and church where tourists now flock.