Nelson Mandela grandson ordered to return three bodies of ex-president’s children to original graves

 
(FILES) Mandla Mandela, one of the grand sons of former president Nelson Mandela, addresses the media in Johannesburg on June 12, 2013. Nelson Mandela's family sought criminal charges of grave tampering against the former South African president's oldest grandson on July 2, 2013 amid an escalating row linked to the eventual burial site of the ailing anti-apartheid hero. The grandson Mandla allegedly had the remains of three of Mandela's children moved from the revered leader's ancestral village in 2011 without the rest of the family's consent. AFP PHOTO / MUJAHID SAFODIENMUJAHID SAFODIEN/AFP/Getty Images
3 July 2013

Nelson Mandela’s grandson was ordered today to return the bodies of three of the ex-president’s children to their original graves, after losing a court battle over their reburial.

Mandla Mandela had moved them from the family graveyard in Qunu, where his grandfather’s grew up, to Mvezo, about 15 miles away, where Nelson was born. Mandla plans to open a heritage centre about the anti-apartheid leader there.

Sixteen Mandela family members said he did so without their knowledge or consent. He claimed that as clan chief he was entitled to.

Today a court in Eastern Cape Province ruled against him and ordered the bodies to be moved back by this afternoon His lawyers have appealed.

Nelson, 94, who is critically ill with a lung infection, has expressed a wish to be buried in Qunu. The graves are of his sons Makgatho and Thembekile, and his daughter Makaziwe.

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