Winnie’s lawyers file heads of argument

WINNIE Madikizela-Mandela’s lawyers have filed their heads of argument in the Mthatha High Court after months of silence.

A date for a formal hearing has yet to be set for Madikizela-Mandela’s application for the court to nullify the registration of former president Nelson Mandela’s Qunu home – the same property where Mandela is buried.

The formal hearing is expected to be held towards the end of this month.

Madikizela-Mandela shocked the world last year when she filed court papers claiming to be the rightful owner of the Qunu property which Mandela had bequeathed to the Nelson Rholihlahla Mandela Family Trust on behalf of his widow Graça Machel and the Mandela family.

But Madikizela-Mandela questioned how he could leave “her” property to his third wife, who had the “whole world in Mozambique”.

She claimed the property was hers and had been given to her while Mandela was still in prison.

To support her claim, MadikizelaMandela attached affidavits from AbaThembu King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo, Qunu chief Nokwanele Balizulu, customary law experts and some elders from the Madiba clan who were present when the land was allegedly given to Madikizela

Some of the affidavits supported the belief that a marital home of a couple is left to the wife and her children at the time of divorce.

The respondents in the case, the three co-executors of Mandela’s estate – Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke, Eastern Cape Judge President Themba Sangoni and Advocate George Bizos – are opposing the matter on grounds that the two Mandelas were divorced and therefore Madikizela-Mandela had no claim to the property.

They also questioned the timing of the application.

In their heads of argument, Madikizela-Mandela’s lawyers wrote that there was “overwhelming” evidence that the Qunu site had been allocated to Madikizela-Mandela.

“While this is disputed by the executors, they do not put up any facts to contradict this but instead contend that the land was allocated to Mr Mandela and not to Mrs Mandela. This contention is advanced without any supporting evidence,” they said.

Madikizela-Mandela wants the court to set aside the decision by the then minister of land affairs to approve the registration of the property in Mandela’s name. —