The wife of South Africa’s first black president is entitled to half of his estate, with the rest shared out among various family members, personal staff, schools and the ruling ANC.
The will was read out two months after Mandela’s death in December at the age of 95.
Executor Dikgang Moseneke, the deputy head of the Constitutional Court, said the reading had been “charged with emotion” but no one had yet contested it.
Lawyers for Mandela revealed that his third wife, Graca Machel, would likely waive her right to 50 percent of the estate, settling for four properties in her native Mozambique as well as cars, art, jewellery and other assets.
His estranged second wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, was not named as a beneficiary in a summary of the will.
Royalties from his books and other projects, as well as his homes, will be split between family members, who have long bickered over the spoils of his legacy.
Mandela’s upscale home in Houghton, where he died on December 5, will be used by the family of his deceased son Makgatho – including grandson and local clan chief Mandla Mandela.
“It is my wish that it should also serve as a place of gathering of the Mandela and Machel family in order to maintain its unity long after death,” the former elder statesman wrote.
Even before his death, Mandela’s children and grandchildren frequently clashed over who leads the family and who should benefit from his investments.
Several have already put the Mandela brand behind commercial projects including wine, clothing, artwork, a social network and a reality television show.
According to the will, which was first written in 2004, Mandela’s children each received loans during his lifetime and will have the debt scrapped if it has not been repaid.
Mandela’s other bequests reflected his political life and his work championing education.
“He wanted to make it clear that what he believed in his life, or during his life, was transmitted to the country if not the world at large,” said George Bizos, one of the executors who also represented Mandela at his treason trial.
Mandela gave R50 000 each to members of staff, including long-time personal aide Zelda la Grange.
The African National Congress, which Mandela led to victory in the first democratic elections in 1994, could receive between 10 and 30 percent of his royalties.
The cash will be used specifically to promote “policies and principles of reconciliation amongst the people of South Africa”.
The ANC – which is struggling amid allegations of corruption and incompetence – welcomed the news as a sign of Mandela’s “unwavering love for his people and their organisation, the ANC”.
Three executors will now be tasked with winding up the estate and carrying out Mandela’s wishes.
They are Bizos; Moseneke, the deputy head of the Constitutional Court who spent years with Mandela imprisoned on Robben Island; and Themba Sangoni, the head judge in Mandela’s home province, the Eastern Cape.
Mandela became South Africa’s first black president after the first all-race elections in 1994 and his politics of forgiveness and reconciliation made him a global peace icon.
He died on December 5 and was buried 10 days later in his rural boyhood home of Qunu after a state memorial service attended by dignitaries from around the world.
Meanwhile, it would be interesting to see whether this WILL would be contested considering what has been going on behind the scenes at Mandela’s clan.
