Winnie: will executors ‘racist’

Customary law ‘not inferior’ to civil law

WINNIE Madikizela-Mandela has lashed out at the executors of Nelson Mandela’s estate for associating with a “racist and colonialist” view that customary law was inferior to civil law.

She was replying to affidavits submitted by Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke, Eastern Cape Judge President Themba Sangoni and George Bizos in her application where she lays a claim to the Qunu property registered in her late ex-husband’s name.

She said the expert opinion submitted by Professor Digby Koyana on behalf of the executors, that her customary marriage was overridden by her civil marriage, was a “colonialist” assumption.

“I have great difficulty in understanding how the [executors], particularly those conversant with African customs and practices and the status of African customary law in our constitutional dispensation, can associate themselves with that submission.

“It is rooted in a racist and colonialist assumption that customary law is inferior to civil law and hence that a marriage under customary law is obliterated when a couple marry civilly,” wrote Madikizela-Mandela.

She said her customary marriage to Mandela was never dissolved.

Madikizela-Mandela also lambasted former Land Affairs Minister Derek Hanekom, who confirmed the donation of the land to Mandela. She said Hanekom based his decision on an allegedly incorrect letter purportedly signed by a leader from the Ebotwe Tribal Authority agreeing to the donation.

“[Hanekom] misconstrued his powers, ignored material information placed before him clearly indicating that there was no resolution from the tribal community and by so doing failing to apply his mind, proceeding to donate and authorise the registration of the deed of grant.

“The actions of the minister were clearly unlawful and irregular.”

The Daily Dispatch had reported that the former deputy secretary of the authority, Chief Zwelidumile Mbande, denied having met with Hanekom’s department and agreeing to the donation of land.

Madikizela-Mandela also denied claims by Rural and Agrarian Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti that she “opportunistically” waited for Mandela to die before making her claim.

“My understanding had always been that the Qunu property is our common home. The land belongs to the community under the chiefs, who hold the land in trust for the state. I would not have expected that my late husband secretly registered the property in his name,” she wrote. She added that had she known about the registration of the land while Mandela was alive, she would have raised the matter with him.

She said the suggestion by Nkwinti that land in rural areas must be registered was a weapon used by “oppressors and colonialists to take black people’s land”.

Responding to claims made that she was greedy and opportunistic, Madikizela-Mandela said: “If I was greedy or opportunistic I would be claiming a share as a wife either before the divorce or after the death. I am not. I am only protecting my customs, traditions and those of my generation.”

In an exclusive interview with the Dispatch last year she said she never thought her late ex-husband would give her children’s legacy away to his third wife, who had the “whole world in Mozambique”.

At the time she said she allowed Mandela to live in her property and that she was never going to evict him.

Madikizela-Mandela’s lawyer, Mvuzo Notyesi, said his team would seek a date for the full hearing of the application. —