ANC appeals to clan to rein in Mandla Mandela

THE ANC has asked the Madiba clan to stop Nelson Mandela's grandson tarnishing the family legacy.

This week's unprecedented call by the Eastern Cape leadership follows embarrassing legal action - including criminal complaints of bigamy - against Mandla Mandela.

Mandla, an ANC MP, is the traditional leader of the former president's birthplace, Mvezo.

He has had a year of public blunders, including:

• Claims by three Mvezo villagers that he was stealing their land for development, now subject to an appeal in the Mthatha High Court;
• Kidnapping charges after two Sunday Times journalists were allegedly held forcibly in the village in October;
• Claims that he had remains of three family members quietly relocated to Mvezo from Qunu;
• A court order last week barring him from taking another wife, which he defied; and
• Two complaints of bigamy laid at the Bityi police station in Eastern Cape on Tuesday by his estranged wife, Tando Nodayimani-Mandela.

His scorned wife vowed to have his marriage last week to Pietermaritzburg woman Mbalenhle Makhathini annulled after a contempt of court charge for his defiance of the order.

Her lawyer, Wesley Hayes, said he was preparing to lodge both applications in the new year.

Approached for comment on Thursday, Mandla, 37, said, "Ungandifoneli tata (don't phone me, sir)," and terminated the call.

Alarmed by developments, ANC provincial bosses pleaded for clan elders to rein him in.

ANC provincial chairman Mlibo Qhoboshiyane said: "We're deeply worried and saddened ... Mandela is still alive. I don't think he is taking these things well. For his sake, we'll pray for the Madiba clan to attend to this matter urgently."

Qhoboshiyane said the ANC had to protect the family name.

Mandla and Tando have been going through a bitter divorce since 2008 after marrying in community of property four years earlier.

Last year, Tando had his marriage to Anais Grimaud, with whom he has a child, annulled.

This week, Tando also lodged complaints of bigamy against Grimaud and Makhathini.

Eastern Cape police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Mzukisi Fatyela confirmed that four complaints had been laid.

Bigamy is the crime of marrying one person while still legally married to another.

While Mandla is still legally married to Tando, she is entitled to half his assets, estimated to be worth millions.

The Customary Marriages Act of 1998 forbids a spouse to enter into more than one legal union while still married.

The act also stops couples entering into civil and customary marriages simultaneously.

Tando said this week Mandla chose " to ignore the laws he is sworn to uphold and protect and has seen fit to go against the court's ruling, and has since continued to enter into not one, but two other marriages".