Mandela’s kin battling over his burial site
A bitter feud within Nelson Mandela’s family over the final resting place of the ailing anti-apartheid hero and his children intensified on Sunday, with his grandson lamenting the dispute has been taken to court.
Mandla Mandela said “regrettably and reluctantly” he was “compelled to go to court and respond” to 16 relatives demanding in court the return of the remains of Mr Mandela’s children to the village of Qunu.
The remains of three of Mandela’s children are currently buried at Mvezo, some 30 kilometres to Qunu’s south, after Mandla moved them, allegedly without the family’s consent, in 2011.
Mr Mandela, who remains critically ill in what is now his fourth week in hospital, had expressed his wish to be buried in Qunu.
His daughters want to have the remains of his children transferred so they can be buried together.
In Qunu, a Mandela elder on Sunday said he hoped the dispute over the family gravesite would be resolved soon.
Napilisi Mandela, who was present at last week’s acrimonious Mandela clan family meeting, said the court battle dividing the Mandela family was a painful matter.
“We are not supposed to be seen as fighting,” he said. “They are children of the same blood and I hope common sense will prevail.”
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