Philippa Garson
LAWYERS are baffled at how Winnie Madikizela- Mandela’s legal team handled the divorce, which ended so suddenly, with her defeated and empty-handed.
A successful challenge to the divorce judgment in the Constitutional Court is seen as unlikely. Madikizela-Mandela must now rely on the “goodness of heart” of President Nelson Mandela, who has offered her an ex gratia settlement and waived legal costs she was ordered to pay.
He has already paid her at least R3-million and two of his daughters R1,3-million.
Lawyers said it was “unheard of” to request a postponement for reconciliation purposes. Details like these and the question of his assets would be discussed in pre-trial conferences. Madikizela-Mandela dodged confronting the issue until it came to court. But when it did, she and her legal team were entirely unprepared for it.
While weeks of court disclosures on more intimate details of the marriage would have ground the country to a voyeuristic standstill, the theoretical possibility exists that elements potentially harmful to the president’s image could have emerged in court.
Dismissing her advocate Ismail Semenya led Judge Frikkie Eloff to request her to defend herself. Unable or unwilling to do this, she did not arrive in court the following day and so lost the opportunity to fight for a portion of his assets. The judge could reopen the settlement hearing if she furnishes very good reasons for her absence in court within the next two weeks.
But legal sources say had she arrived in court that day and asked for a postponement until she acquired a new legal team, she would have got it.
Having been married to the president for 38 years she stood to gain as much as a third of his estate. Or, had she simply settled out of court her settlement could have been “handsome”.
Madikizela-Mandela has since denied firing Semenya, a Natal University graduate and member of a panel of legal experts to the Constituent Assembly. Semenya served on the Skweyiya Commission into corruption in former Bophuthatswana and co-authored a book on the draft Constitution.