PORT ELIZABETH – Judgment was reserved in the Mthatha High Court on Tuesday in the civil case of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela who is attempting to seek the rights to former president Nelson Mandela’s home in Qunu in the Eastern Cape.
Madikizela-Mandela’s lawyer, Mvuzo Notyesi, said their legal argument related to customary law.
Lawyers for Madikizela-Mandela have argued that despite the couple’s divorce in 1996 after 38 years of marriage, the customary marriage between the two had remained intact.
Advocate George Bizos, who is one of the executors of former president Nelson Mandela’s will, earlier slammed Winnie-Madikizela Mandela for seeking the rights to Mandela’s home in Qunu.
Bizos said that that they would oppose Madikizela-Mandela’s claim as she did nothing for 17 years after the property was registered in Nelson Mandela’s name.
Madikizela-Mandela’s lawyers filed papers during 2014 and are claiming that the property had been obtained while she was married to Mandela and belonged to her in terms of AbaThembu custom.
In his last will and testament, Nelson Mandela left the Qunu property to all members of the Mandela family as a place to unify them.
Madikizela-Mandela was left out of his will, which was released in February 2014, after his death on December 5, 2013.
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