THERE was a sense of deja vu as South Africa’s most litigated public servant, Winnie Mandela, failed to testify in her own defence this week. Mandela has frequently been unavailable when called on to face the consequences of legal proceedings.
l President Nelson Mandela resorted to a supreme court order to serve a divorce summons on his estranged wife, after it had proved impossible to deliver the summons personally.
l While Mandela was in Beijing, sheriffs attempted to seize goods from her home to pay R15 000 in costs owed in respect of two previous failures to appear in court. They were barred from entering the house. Mandela returned to South Africa to face a second attempt to seize the contents of her home, and was saved by a relative who provided R10 000 towards the payment of the
l In October, the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology announced that Mandela would have to pay for the government cars and cellphone which she had continued to use without authorisation since her dismissal as deputy minister.
l On November 7 Mandela missed a court appearance to testify in an inquest into the death of her bodyguard and driver John