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Struggle icon Winnie Madikizela-Mandela is prepared to go to the highest court in the land in a bid to get her hands on the Qunu property she once shared with her ex-husband, former statesman Nelson Mandela.
This comes after the Mthatha High Court dismissed her application with costs on Thursday.
Mvuzo Notyesi, the lawyer for Madikizela-Mandela, told City Press on Friday that they got instructions from her to appeal the decision in “every court until the Constitutional Court, if necessary”.
“She [Madikizela-Mandela] was disappointed about the judgment. She understands the process of the country’s laws and respects [the court],” Notyesi said, adding that they were deciding whether to take the case to the Supreme Court of Appeal or the Constitutional Court.
“Our instructions are to appeal in all the courts until we exhaust every court, and up to the Constitutional Court. The only thing that will stop us going to the latter is if we succeed at a lower court,” Notyesi explained.
He said they had 14 days to file a notice of their intention to appeal which they hoped to do next week.
Notyesi, who is the instructing attorney, said he believed the Mthatha court did not decide the case “on the merits but on the technicality of law” that there had been a lenghty delay by Madikizela-Mandela to challenge her husband’s will.
He said they disagreed with the court’s conclusion because a will is only subject to scrutiny on the death of a person.
“The court got it wrong. There was no way she could have contested something she did not know about,” he said.
Dr Nokuzola Mndende, African cultural and spiritual activist and the director of Icamagu Institute, said the judgment was disappointing and proved that recognition of customary law by the Constitution was nothing but a fallacy.
“Mama Winnie’s case is so unfortunate. Instead of the law looking at Mr Mandela as a man from Qunu, they are looking at him as an international figure,” she argued.
Mndende, who supports Madikizela-Mandela’s decision to appeal, said the argument that the 17-year delay (since the divorce) was a deciding factor against her was “childish”.
“A house in a village is the home of the children of the wife the man is married to while he acquired that house. Winnie did not know that the house in Qunu would be bequeathed the way it was. Mr Mandela’s will has destroyed the Mandela family.”
Culturally, she added, Graça Machel – who was married to the statesman at the time of his death – has no claim on the Qunu property. “This ... leaves a lot of unanswered questions. If you say civil marriage supersedes customary marriage, why are they lying, saying they recognise traditional leadership and our customs?” she said.
Mndende said the will was a Western construct and, culturally, there was umyolelo, where one instructed family members what to do in the case of one’s demise.
