Inheritance can be messy in any family. For Nelson Mandela, a man who is survived by a wife, an ex-wife, three children, 17 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren, and over whom millions of South Africans feel a sense of ownership, it promises to be especially complicated.
The planned funeral and burial have already been a bone of contention, with Mandela’s eldest grandson, Mandla, forced to deny last year that he did a secret deal with broadcasters to sell exclusive rights for the service.
Mandla’s first wife claimed he made the deal in 2009 for three million rand (€2.1 million) but the young Mandela said he was not in possession of any “written agreement”.
Divisive figure
Mandla, an ANC MP and chief of Mvezo, a small hamlet near his grandfather's home village of Qunu, has been a divisive figure in the family. He caused upset when he ordered three of Mandela's children to be exhumed and reburied in Mvezo under a major tourism venture, for which he also tore down the remains of his grandfather's home in order to build a replica and museum.
Mandela’s personal life has also been criticised. While polygamy is legal in South African tribal law, he has been accused of breaching a court order by remarrying while he was negotiating his first divorce.
Exploitation
Other members of the Mandela clan have been accused of exploiting the former president's image for profit. Satirised in some media as "the Randelas", their money-spinning enterprises include a wine label, a fashion business and a plan to sell machine-autographed Mandela artworks. The latter has become embroiled in an unseemly legal dispute, with two of Mandela's daughters seeking to wrest control of the business from a trust headed by George Bizos, the lawyer who defended Mandela against a potential death penalty in the famed Rivonia treason trial.
Bizos accused Makaziwe Mandela of seeking to “take over the money, not for any specific purpose, and distribute it to members of the family”, a charge she and her half-sister Zenani – South Africa’s ambassador to Argentina – vehemently deny.
Royalties
The daughters now want to remove Bizos and two other trustees from the two companies that control the Mandela artworks and their royalties, which are valued at an estimated 28 million rand (€2.1 million).
Court papers filed by Mandela's lawyer Bally Chuene in May of this year backed Bizos in the affair, accusing the daughters of amending a trust deed in secret so they could gain access to the former president's wealth. Chuene claims Mandela was "infuriated" by his daughters' attempts to gain control of the trust without his knowledge.
Family initiatives
Other headline-grabbing family initiatives have been a tribute boxing tournament organised by Mandela grandsons Ndaba and Kweku at a casino in Monaco, and a reality TV show featuring two of his granddaughters, Zamaswasi and Zaziwe. The NBC series Being Mandela features the pair shopping and socialising in Cape Town and Johannesburg, while promoting their clothing label, Long Walk to Freedom.
Makaziwe Mandela, one of the daughters embroiled in the trust dispute, is also the founder of a wine label called House of Mandela.
Her daughter Tukwini is marketing director of the company, which is frowned upon by some commentators as they feel Mandela’s name should not be associated with the promotion of alcohol.
Bonded
Despite such travails, the family has bonded at times of crisis, most notably in June 2010 when one of Mandela's great-granddaughters – Zenani, a daughter of Zoleka Mandela – died in a car crash on the opening night of the Fifa World Cup in South Africa.
Mandela was also predeceased by his first wife, Evelyn Mase, who he divorced in 1958, and three of his six children.
