JOHANNESBURG (AP) – Nelson Mandela’s estate, worth roughly $4.1 million, will be shared among his family, members of his staff, schools that he attended and the African National Congress, the movement that fought white rule and now governs South Africa, the will’s executors said today.
Mandela’s third wife, Graca Machel, is the main beneficiary of the will because their marriage was “in community of property” and she therefore has the right to half his estate, as long as she claims it within 90 days, said executor Dikgang Moseneke, who is also deputy chief justice of the Constitutional Court.
Graca Machel’s first husband, president Samora Machel of Mozambique, died in a plane crash in 1986.
Mandela’s ex-wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, was not mentioned in the will. The couple divorced in 1996.
Moseneke said he was not aware of any challenges to the provisions of the will. Mandela, a prisoner during white racist rule who became South Africa’s first black president, died December 5 at age 95.
Moseneke outlined a “provisional inventory” of 46 million South African rand, or $4.1 million, but cautioned the amount could change as the will is studied more carefully. The document was drawn up in 2004, and was amended in 2005 and 2008. Two other executors are George Bizos, a human rights lawyer and long-time friend of Mandela, and Themba Sangoni, a chief judge from Eastern Cape province, Mandela’s birthplace.
Earlier today, the will was read in its entirety to members of Mandela’s family.
“It went well,” Moseneke said at a news conference. “There were clarifications sought from time to time.”
Last year, while Mandela’s health was in decline, his family was involved in a number of high-profile disputes.
Some members sought to dislodge Bizos and other directors of two companies whose proceeds are supposed to benefit the Mandela family. Separately, Mandla Mandela, a grandson of the anti-apartheid leader, fell out with family members because he had moved the remains of the patriarch’s three deceased children to a different gravesite. A court order forced him to return the remains to Qunu, where Nelson Mandela grew up and where he was buried on December 15.
In the will, Mandela said he had already given $300 000 to his three surviving children. He bequeathed amounts to his grandchildren ranging from $9 000 to $300 000, and the beneficiaries include Graca Machel’s two children with Samora Machel.
Mandela gave $4 500 each to nine staff members, including Xoliswa Ndoyiya, his personal cook.
“It shows me that he has been respecting me and he loved me for who I am,” Ndoyiya said at a press conference where the will was made public. “I am one of these people who served him for many years.”
