Mandela and estranged wife in court as divorce battle drags on

Mandla Mandela and his estranged first wife Thando Mabunu-Mandela again squared off in the Mthatha High Court yesterday in a long-running divorce battle.

However, Mandela’s legal team used a Constitutional Court ruling on another case to stop the media from publishing facts on his divorce case.

The Dispatch has previously reported the pair have been embroiled in a divorce, with Mabunu-Mandela demanding half of their joint estate.

But even before proceedings could start yesterday, Mandela’s legal team raised the issue of a Constitutional Court ruling on a case involving Johncom v Others wherein they claimed that in high-profile divorce cases, the media could not report on the facts of the case if a child was involved.

They claimed although Mandela and his estranged wife did not have a child together, the former was now the father to a six-month-old baby. It was further argued that it would not be in the best interest of the child to have the facts of the case published. Mandela has a son with his fourth wife, Nosekeni Rabia Mandela.

Billy Gundelfinger, one of the Mandela’s lawyers, said the media would have to make a formal application to the court to show if it was in the interest of the public to publish the facts surrounding the case.

Judge Fatima Dawood then asked the media if it would make a formal application, to which reporters in court said not at that moment.