Workers armed with pick-axes and a court order broke into the compound of Nelson Mandela’s grandson on Wednesday to exhume the remains of three of the anti-apartheid hero’s children, a new twist in a row that has split South Africa’s most famous family.
Within hours of a ruling against Mandela Mandela by the high court in Mthatha, 700 km south of Johannesburg, police and hearses arrived at Mandela’s complex in the nearby village of Mvezo, where the three Mandela offspring are buried.
The three bodies were initially laid to rest in the family cemetery in Qunu, the village where Mandela – now 94 years old and critically ill in hospital – spent most of his childhood.
But they were moved two years ago by Mandela to Mvezo, where he serves as the official head of the clan.
The spat over the site of the Mandela family graves has transfixed and appalled South Africa’s 53 million people as they contemplate the reality that the father of the post-apartheid “Rainbow Nation” will not be with them forever.
In a court affidavit filed against Mandela last week, Mandela’s eldest daughter, Makaziwe, argued for an urgent hearing, saying her father was in a “perilous” condition and breathing with the aid of life-support, local media said.
“The anticipation of his impending death is based on real and substantial grounds,” the City Press newspaper quoted the court papers as saying.
Mandela has not made clear why he moved the remains the 20km to Mvezo, where Mandela was born, but many South Africans believe it is part of a campaign to ensure the country’s first black president is buried there.
Mandela has already built a visitor centre at Mvezo and a memorial to his grandfather, one of the 20th century’s most admired political figures, revered across racial and religious lines as a symbol of opposition to injustice and oppression.
Last week, a faction of the family led by Makaziwe sought a court order compelling the bodies to be returned to Qunu.
Local media reports have suggested the initial movement of the remains by Mandela may have been carried out without the required cultural customs being observed, and police have opened an investigation to determine whether it was done illegally.
Mandela, a 39-year-old Member of Parliament for the ruling African National Congress (ANC), was not present when a posse of police, workmen and undertakers entered the Mvezo complex to carry out the court order.
