Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has applied to the Constitutional Court in relation to her fraud conviction, the court confirmed on Tuesday.
The application was received on June 2, a court official said.
This follows the dismissal by the Pretoria High Court and the Supreme Court of Appeals for leave to appeal her conviction on 43 counts of fraud and her suspended sentence.
According to Beeld newspaper, the application was made on the grounds that her right to a fair hearing was infringed.
The conviction related to loans obtained on behalf of non-existent African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL) employees from Saambou Bank through a brokerage firm, Imstadt. Madikizela-Mandela was once president of the league.
The loans were approved on the basis of letters on ANCWL letterheads signed by Madikizela-Mandela, falsely stating that the league employed the applicants.
She and her co-accused, Addy Moolman, were initially also found guilty of 25 charges of theft, but these counts were dropped on appeal to the Pretoria High Court.
Moolman’s sentence was then reduced from five years’ imprisonment and Madikizela-Mandela’s from an eight-month jail term (in effect) to a wholly suspended one.
The Pretoria High Court found it was improbable that Madikizela-Mandela would have signed the 43 letters, as she claimed, without knowing their contents.
A spokesperson for Madikizela-Mandela, Alan Reynolds, said that he has been instructed not to comment.
Madikizela-Mandela is regarded as an icon of the struggle against apartheid and was a deputy minister in the first democratic government.
She was also married to former president Nelson Mandela during his lengthy incarceration and was constantly harassed, detained and placed under house arrest by the apartheid government for lobbying for her husband’s release and for the African National Congress.
In 1991, she was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment in effect, after being convicted of kidnapping and being an accessory to assault in connection with the death of 14-year-old activist Stompie Seipei.
The kidnapping conviction was subsequently changed to a R15 000 fine on appeal, with the accessory-to-assault conviction set aside. — Sapa