The Mail & Guardian has learnt that Mandla Mandela filed an urgent application in the Eastern Cape High Court in Mthatha on Wednesday afternoon to have the earlier court order overturned.
Judge Nozuko Mjali studied the ruling made earlier on Wednesday by Judge Lusindiso Pakade, and ruled that she would not hear the urgent application and upheld the earlier order.
This ruling upheld a court order compelling Mandla Mandela, who is former president Nelson Mandela's grandson, to return the remains of his father Makgatho Mandela, his aunt Makaziwe Mandela and uncle Madiba Thembekile Mandela to Qunu.
He exhumed and moved the graves from Qunu to Mvezo – where he holds the chieftainship – in 2011.
A group of 16 Mandela family members approached the court to have the bodies exhumed and moved back to the family graveyard in Qunu. – Additional reporting by Sapa