Mandela's last wishes

Nelson Mandela's will is to be read today at the offices of the foundation in Houghton, Johannesburg, that bears his name.

Details of the reading were released yesterday by the office of Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke, who is expected to preside over it.

The three executors of the estate - Moseneke, advocate George Bizos and Judge President of the Eastern Cape Themba Sangoni - are expected to make public Mandela's last wishes for the distribution of his assets.

Moseneke first met Madiba on Robben Island, where they were both imprisoned, in 1963. They remained friends.

Bizos was Madiba's long-time friend and lawyer. Sangoni worked on Madiba's Eastern Cape legal matters. The three were named executors in December.

Mandela spent the last months of his life a spectator to continuous and often embarrassing public spats between his children and his grandson Mandla, on the one hand, and his children and the men he had chosen to be his executors.

He was somewhat insulated from embarrassment by his hospitalisation. His health would not have allowed him to intervene in the mudslinging.

Sangoni and Bizos were embroiled in an ugly spat with Mandela's daughters, Makaziwe Mandela and Zenani Dlamini, over directorships in their father's companies.

The companies were set up to channel the proceeds of sales of Mandela's hand-prints into the accounts of companies set up for his and his children's benefit. At stake was an estimated R15-million.

In April, Makaziwe and Zenani made a high court application for the removal of Bizos, lawyer Bally Chuene and businessman Tokyo Sexwale from the boards of Harmonieux Investment Holdings and Magnifique Investment Holdings.

They companies were set up by Mandela's former lawyer, Ismail Ayob, when the two men were still on good terms.

Zenani and Makaziwe alleged that the men had not been appointed to the boards of his companies by their father but they dropped the litigation after six months and offered to pay the legal costs of the respondents.

"There is no basis to the allegations," the three men said in April. "We are not hijackers. We don't hijack things. We are confident that we were regularly appointed at the wish of Mandela five years ago."

It is believed that Madiba's will was finalised about nine years ago after he parted ways with Ayob.

Ayob acted as Makaziwe and Zenani's lawyer during the lawsuit against Bizos, Chuene and Sexwale. He withdrew before its conclusion.

Makaziwe, Zenani and 14 other members of the Mandela family also went to court to demand that Mandla return the remains of the statesman's children to their original burial place.

The remains were those of Mandela's eldest son, Madiba Thembekile, who died in a car accident in 1969; Mandla's father Makgatho, who died in 2005; and Mandela's first daughter, Makaziwe, who died as an infant in 1948.

The three sets of remains were exhumed in Mandla's home village of Mvezo, in Eastern Cape, in accordance with a court order, and reburied at Mandela's home in Qunu the following day.

Reports of the apparent sidelining in family affairs of Mandela's widow, Graça Machel, surfaced following Madiba's state funeral.

In December, the AbaThembu royal family voiced concern about the disputes in the Mandela family and, after a meeting between the AbaThembu royal family and elders of the Mandela family in Qunu, the royals urged Mandela family members to "respect the administration of the estate".