ZINGISILE MAPAZI, Johannesburg | Tuesday
LAWYERS for Winnie Madikizela-Mandela have not yet decided what action to take following a High Court ruling evicting her from her Soweto home, her representative Alan Reynolds said on Monday.
Madikizela-Mandela was ordered by the court last week to hand over the house, which she once shared with her ex-husband Nelson Mandela, to the Soweto Heritage Trust.
Reynolds said on Monday that contrary to media reports, Madikizela-Mandela had not yet decided whether to appeal the ruling.
”Her lawyers are still discussing what course of action to take after she instructed them yesterday (Sunday) to pursue the matter further,” he said.
Meanwhile the Heritage Trust’s chairman, Doctor Nthato Motlana, said on Monday the court action against Madikizela-Mandela had been taken by the trust, and not her former husband, after it had failed to persuade her to vacate the house which it had acquired from Mandela.
”At the time Mr Mandela handed the house over to the Soweto Heritage Trust, Mrs Madikizela-Mandela did not live in the house although some of her relatives did occupy the house.
”As chairman of the trust I was asked to try and persuade her to vacate the house. When she refused to do so, the trust then went to court to try and persuade her otherwise. It was not Mr Mandela as reported in the press, but the Soweto Heritage Trust, that took Mrs Madikizela-Mandela to court,” he said.
Motlana said the Soweto Heritage Trust had been established in 1995 to identify several places of historic value as heritage sites.
Other heritage properties besides Mandela’s house No. 8115 in Orlando West include the former residences of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former ANC deputy president Walter Sisulu, the late Pan Africanist Congress president Zephania Mothopeng, as well as the Regina Mundi Church, Freedom Square where the Freedom Charter was signed in 1955 and the Hector Pietersen Memorial.
Mandela bought the house from the Soweto City Council in 1996 and handed it over the trust in 1997 after he had occupied it since 1944 and, according to Motlana, this was long after the Mandela’s had divorced. Their marriage was out of community of property.
Last week’s court ruling brought to an end a legal wrangle which began in 1998 when the Heritage Trust applied to have Madikizela-Mandela evicted. She launched an interdict to stop the eviction and set aside the transfer of the house to the trust.
The court granted the Soweto Heritage Trust’s application for Madikizela-Mandela’s eviction and ordered her to pay the legal costs.
According to the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE), the Black Administration Act of 1927 which prevents African women from inheriting property is still in force.
CGE attorney Lulama Nongogo said the SA Law Commission was in the process of drafting legislation to have this Act repealed and brought in line with the Interstate Succession Act which provides for white women and their children to acquire a portion of the husband’s property if he dies without leaving a will.
On the other hand, the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act which provides African women the capacity and an equal status with men to own property came into effect in November 2000. – Sapa
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