NO REPRIEVE FOR MANDELA

Mandla s wife can ask to annul other marriage

MANDLA Mandela has failed in his attempt to interdict his estranged wife from approaching the court to annul his current marriage.

Mandela and Tando Mabunu-Mandela married in community of property in 2004 and divorce proceedings were instituted in 2009. The two are still fighting over assets – a matter preventing the divorce from being finalised.

In the divorce proceedings, Mabunu-Mandela managed to get the court to grant a maintenance order to the tune of R12 500 a month.

She is also asking the court for a division of their joint estate.

In 2010 Mandela, an ANC MP, married Anais Grimaud in a lavish traditional ceremony in Mvezo. Celebrations were short-lived as Mabunu- Mandela asked the Mthatha High Court to declare the marriage null and void.

Mandela then married Mbalenhle Makhathini – known as Nkosikazi Nodiyala – on Christmas Eve 2011 despite a court order interdicting him from doing so.

Last year Mabunu-Mandela moved an application to have the marriage annulled and Mandela moved a counter application to interdict her from making her application.

The court dismissed his application yesterday.

In her judgment, high court judge Nomatamsanqa Beshe said in Mandela’s papers there was “suggestion that the annulment application was an abuse of the court, or that there was already an action pending between the parties on the same cause of action”.

Beshe said the annulment was not prejudicial to Mandela. “[ There was no suggestion] that the defendant [Mandela] will suffer injustice and inequity if the application is not stayed.

“I am not persuaded that there are good grounds on which I can exercise my discretion to order the stay of the annulment application.”

In another application, Mandela also asked the court to grant the divorce separately from the other matters and not wait to finalise them before setting it down. However, Beshe dismissed that too.

Mandela and his attorney Gary Jansen could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Nodiyala Mandela said though she was aware of the court case, she did not know the matter was heard yesterday.

Mabunu-Mandela ’ s attorney Wesley Hayes said: “We are delighted with the outcome. [It] means we can now set the annulment application we have pending before the courts down for hearing, and proceed to annul Mr Mandela’s marriage to Ms Makhathini just as we successfully did in the case of his first illegitimate marriage to Anais Grimaud, and continue with the divorce.”