Mandela grandson wife to challenge third wedding
JOHANNESBURG, Monday
The first wife of Nelson Mandela’s grandson is seeking to have her husband’s wedding to a Swazi princess annulled in court, the Sapa news agency reported on Monday.
Mandla Mandela, 37, defied a court ban to marry Mbali Makhathini at the Mvezo Royal Palace in rural Eastern Cape province on Saturday.
Mandla is a grandson of former South African president Nelson Mandela and also a member of parliament. He heads the Mandela family clan.
A South African court Thursday granted Tando Mabunu-Mandela, his first and currently only legal wife, a ban on him marrying another woman, for the second time in seven months.
“You must remember that both Mandela and his new wife Nodiyala are both in contempt of court, they ignored a court order... I am busy... drafting the papers,” her lawyer Wesley Hayes told Sapa late Saturday.
Mabunu-Mandela had her estranged husband’s 2010 marriage to a woman from Reunion Island declared illegal in May this year on the same grounds.
A sheriff last week seized assets worth 100,000 rands ($12,000, 9,000 euros) from Mandla after he failed to pay maintenance to Mabunu-Mandela pending their divorce that has been lagging since 2009.
