'Nelson swindled and betrayed me'- Winnie Accuses Late Husband Mandela

Just one year after his death, Nelson Mandela's controversial ex-wife Winnie  is launching a legal battle, saying the former South African president swindled her out of her rightful inheritance - 250 acres of his ancestral homeland that includes his final resting place.

In a lawsuit that exposes the bitter rancour within the Mandela family and challenges the former South African President's will, 78-year-old Winnie Madikizela-Mandela claims that the land in Qunu was given to her when they were still married and that he had no right to secretly transfer the homestead into his own name.

 Accusing Mandela of 'land fraud' and 'betrayal', the case will inflame tensions right to the top of the country's ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC).



 Last week, launching her legal bid to have the land returned to her, she claimed the transfer to Mandela was carried out 'under a cloud of darkness and secrets' and that, although she expected nothing from his will, she did not expect to be cheated out of what was 'rightfully' hers

 

 

'I had no idea that he had done this,’ she said. ‘He used his influence as former President to persuade the Ebotwe Tribal Authority to give him ownership and he donated R150,000 [worth £15,000 at the time] to those who helped him. The funds were supposed to be put in a trust, but my lawyers can find no trace of it.

 

‘He went over the heads of the Qunu community who know the land is mine and he bypassed the authority of King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo who personally allocated it to me.’

She recalls: ‘Security police watched me all the time. I used a friend to act as a decoy one night so police would think I was at home.

 

‘Then I drove to Qunu for a clandestine meeting with the future king. I was taking risks but it was important in our Xhosa traditions. Each married household must have its plot of land.

 

‘Nelson was locked up on Robben Island and wives like me had been warned we would bring our husbands home as corpses from that place. But I always believed he would be released. It was my duty to have a home ready for us. The king and his tribesmen took me to a piece of open veldt he had selected for me. It was important to know that my husband and I now had a rural home.

 

‘I had wonderful dreams that we would one day live there, farming cattle and sheep.

‘We talked about it many times. He asked me for permission to build our house as a replica of his last place of imprisonment, a cottage with a verandah in the grounds of Victor Verster prison.’

 

But the couple never lived there together, parting a short time after his release in 1990. Mandela is known to have been unable to accept his wife’s infidelity and her intransigence in opposing peaceful negotiations with the Apartheid government. Their divorce was finalised in 1996.

 

Winnie said she allowed Mandela to continue to occupy the property after their divorce. ‘He loved it,’ she aid. ‘I would never have asked him to leave, to evict him because he re-married. But now I find he elected to take my land away and give it on his death to someone who has a whole world in Mozambique, with four houses there.’

 

She is referring to Mandela’s widow Graca, who was married to Samora Machel, President of Mozambique until his assassination in 1986.

 

Winnie said that, as his ex-wife, she never expected to receive anything in Mandela’s will and had not attended the family briefing when the will was read.

‘But I never expected to lose what is rightfully mine,’ she said. ‘I was shocked beyond belief

 

 Credit:Mailonline