Winnie’s Qunu appeal dismissed

ATTEMPTS by struggle veteran Winnie Madikizela-Mandela to claim her late ex-husband Nelson Mandela’s Qunu homestead will be opposed by the executors of the former president’s estate.

In April 2016, the Eastern Cape High Court refused Madikizela- Mandela’s appeal to have the decision by thenland affairs minister Derek Hanekom reviewed.

In November 1997, Hanekom rejected Madikizela-Mandela’s efforts to lay claim to the sprawling property.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court of Appeal ( SCA) dismissed Madikizela-Mandela’s appeal of the April 2016 decision. Mandela’s long- time lawyer and friend George Bizos told Independent Media that Madikizela-Mandela had no evidence the property was hers and that the executors of Mandela’s estate, of which he is one, would oppose any further litigation.

The veteran advocate said Madikizela-Mandela had raised the question of ownership of the property only after Mandela’s death.

Acting SCA president Jeremiah Shongwe said Mandela’s death over four years ago compromised the legal principle of audi alteram partem (listening to the other side).

“Although the appellant ( Madikizela- Mandela) had a number of witnesses in support of her version as to how the Qunu property was allocated to her by the tribal leaders, the weight of this evidence might have been diminished if Mr Mandela himself had been alive to give his version,” said Shongwe.

He added that “one is bound to conclude that there is some important part of the story which the court did not hear because the review was only instituted after Mr Mandela’s death”.

The SCA based its decision to dismiss the appeal exclusively on the lack of an acceptable explanation for the 17-year delay, together with the potential for severe resultant prejudice to be suffered by the respondents.

The respondents include the executors of Mandela’s estate – Bizos, retired Eastern Cape judge president Themba Sangoni and retired deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke, as well as the Nelson Mandela Family Trust, Mandela’s widow Graca Machel and President Jacob Zuma.

Shongwe said in the court’s judgment he was “prepared to assume, without deciding, that on the evidence before the court, the appellant’s (Madikizela-Mandela’s) case on the merits has good prospects of success and that a meaningful result for the appellant would be achieved by setting aside the decision of the minister”.

Shongwe added: “These assumed prospects of success are however not sufficient to swing the balance in her favour when it comes to the discretion as to whether to overlook the delay, when due regard is had to the potential for severe resultant prejudice if the decision of the minister is set aside.”

Bizos said the executors of Mandela’s estate had always believed that Madikizela-Mandela did not have a case and that was the reason they had opposed her application.

“There is no reason to claim that the Qunu house is hers,” said the 90-year-old.

Mandela’s grandson Mandla Mandela said the judgment respected the global icon’s last wishes and hoped that the matter had finally been put to rest.

According to the SCA, the original modest dwelling constructed on the property between 1993 and 1995 had been built at a time when Mandela and Madikizela-Mandela were separated and hardly talking.

The mansion on the property was erected after they were divorced in March 1996 and was used by Mandela and Machel, who he married on his 80th birthday in 1998.

Madikizela-Mandela’s lawyer Mvuzo Notyesi did not respond to requests for comment on his client’s next move.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela