South African police say they have opened an investigation into Mandela’s grandson, Mandla Mandela labelled with an allegation that he exhumed bodies of Nelson Mandela’s children and transfered same elsewhere.
The investigation is based on suspicion of illegally exhuming the bodies of three of Nelson Mandela’s children and it comes as the latest twist in an unedifying family feud that has drawn global attention as former South African Nelson Mandela lies in hospital.
Sixteen members of the Mandela family have already won a court order forcing Mandla Mandela – officially chief of the Mandela clan – to return the bodies that he dug up two years ago from the village of Qunu, where Nelson Mandela grew up.
Mandla had the remains moved 20 km (13 miles) to his Eastern Cape village of Mvezo. He has not commented on why he moved the bodies but Mvezo is where Mandela was actually born and where many South Africans believe Mandla wants South Africa’s first black president to be buried.