Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the flamboyant ex-wife of former South African president Nelson Mandela, will appear in court again on Monday on 85 charges of fraud and theft.
”All indications from her defence team is that they are ready and willing to continue,” said Jan Ferreira, the prosecutor in the case.
Madikizela-Mandela (65) was arrested and charged in October with fraud and theft involving about a million rand (about $100 000).
She is a member of parliament and president of the women’s league of the ruling African National Congress. She faces 60 counts of fraud and 25 of theft in the Regional Court in Pretoria.
The charges concern an alleged scam over the use of her signature to obtain bank loans for people claimed fraudulently to be employees of the women’s league.
Investigators said she had made deposits totalling more than R550 000 into personal bank accounts — now frozen — since January last year.
Madikizela-Mandela, known among blacks during the apartheid years as ”the Mother of the Nation” in recognition of her defiance and organisation, was formally arrested and fingerprinted before she appeared in court on October 18.
She was released on bail of R5 000 raised by well-wishers, with the case postponed twice to Monday.
A co-accused, broker Andy Moolman, was put in custody after handing himself over to police in June, but was later released on bail.
Winnie and Nelson Mandela married in 1958 and separated in 1992.
In the years after their marriage — and during Nelson Mandela’s 27 years in prison — Winnie was in and out of jail on various charges.
She was convicted of kidnapping a young activist called Stompie Sepei, who was murdered, but a six-year sentence for the offence was suspended on appeal.
Mandela made her a deputy minister in his government in 1994, but sacked her for insubordination the following year.
Her behaviour during the liberation struggle was called into question by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, she has been rapped over the knuckles for seldom taking her seat in the National Assembly, and she has had trouble with the income tax authorities, but she remains immensely popular among the poor.
She ignited controversy last year by writing a letter to Deputy President Jacob Zuma in which she claimed that President Thabo Mbeki was hostile to her, and accused the president of philandering. – AFP
