Shunned Winnie set to scrap for Madiba home

By ALAN OAKLEY - Thu Oct 16, 11:34 am

Nelson Wandela’s former wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, is challenging the estate of the late former president, seeking the rights to his home in Qunu, Eastern Cape – his final resting place.

Winnie and Nelson Mandela separated two years after he was freed

“The papers have been filed in the Mthatha High Court,” her attorney Mvuzo Notyesi said, adding: “It has been sent to the respondent.”

In August, Notyesi reportedly wrote to deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke, a co-executor of the will. In the letter, Notyesi argued that AbaThembu custom dictated that the rights to the property go to Winnie and her descendants.

“This position becomes applicable irrespective of whether the wife was divorced or not,” Notyesi was quoted as writing.

“It is only in this home that the children and grandchildren of Mrs Madikizela-Mandela can conduct their own customs and tradition…”

Winnie, now 78, who was for 38 years the former statesman’s second wife, was left out of Mandela’s will, which was announced in February following his death on December 5, 2013. Following a four-year separation, the couple divorced in 1996, six years after Mandela’s release from prison. He went on to marry Graça Machel, former First Lady of Mozambique, in 1998.