Expatica news

Prosecutors mull ‘grave tampering’ charge against Mandla Mandela

South Africa’s national prosecutor will decide this week whether to level criminal charges of grave tampering against Nelson Mandela’s grandson Mandla, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Mandla, the traditional chief of Mvezo, the village where Mandela was born, was last week accused of tampering with the three graves of Mandela’s children, after he exhumed their remains without consent.

The spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority in the Eastern Cape, Luxolo Tyali, said police had handed the case over to the public prosecutor for consideration Tuesday.

He said “a decision to prosecute or not would be made during the course of this week.”

“There are three counts of violation in this case,” said Tyali.

Last week, a court ruled that Mandla return the bodies from to Qunu, after more than a dozen family members lodged an urgent interdict forcing him to return the remains.

The bodies which were exhumed in 2011 are those of Thembekile who died in 1969, Makaziwe who died as an infant in 1948 and Mandla’s own father Makgatho who was buried in 2005.

The three bodies were last week reburied inside Mandela’s homestead, following the court order.

Mandla has publicly slammed the court’s decision, arguing that he was not allowed a chance to state his case.