Now, following weeks of
media speculation that their marriage had ended amid blazing rows, Mr Mandela
has confirmed that his wife had an affair with his brother.
“The Mandela family has sent my wife Nkosikazi Nobubele Mandela (nee Anais
Grimaud) back to her home after it was discovered she has been having an affair
with one of my brothers”, he said.
“I confirm this affair resulted in a son that Nkosikazi Nobubele gave birth to
in 2011.
The cuckold scandal is just the latest in a series of controversies involving
Mandla Mandela, whom Nelson Mandela anointed as his political heir.
As well as being a South African MP, Mandla Mandela is a chief in the important
Thembu tribe and handles much of his grandfather’s legacy.
of the Mandela family.
He married his first wife, Tanda Mabunu-Mandela, at a traditional ceremony in
2004.
Miss Grimaud, who is from the island of Reunion, a French overseas territory in
the Indian Ocean.
On marriage she
took the tribal name Nkosikazi Nobubele Mandela.
The couple’s son
was born in September last year and was named Qheya by Nelson Mandela himself.
The marriage was
marred by the fact Mandla remained officially married to his first wife.
Ms Mabunu-Mandela
fought the Grimaud marriage in the law courts and it was last year declared
In a statement released this week, Mandla Mandela said DNA tests
confirmed that the boy was not his son but he did not identify which of his two
brothers was responsible.
affair has come as a shock to me and the rest of my family,” the statement
reads.
“It has been made
more painful because it is my own brother who is at the centre of the crisis.”
Earlier this year
Mandla Mandela was forced to deny selling exclusive rights to film the
anti-apartheid icon’s funeral for around £250,000.
Mandla’s first wife
Thando claimed that the tribal chieftain was alleged to have cut a deal with
the South African Broadcasting Corporation in conjunction with the BBC.
He had also
attracted criticism for ordering that the bodies of three of the former
president’s children be exhumed from their home village of Qunu and reburied in
the nearby hamlet of Mvezo where he is a chief.
Mandla’s motive,
said his critics, was to ensure that the former president be buried in the
remote Eastern Cape town: something that is sure to act as a lure for
big-spending tourists.
