The grandson of Nelson Mandela is being investigated by police over allegations of tampering with graves, it emerged today.
Mandla
Mandela is suspected of illegally exhuming the bodies of three of the
former South African president's children from a family grave yard two
years ago.
The police probe is the latest twist in an unedifying family feud that has drawn global attention as the 94-year-old apartheid hero remains in a critical condition in a Pretoria hospital.
Sixteen
members of the Mandela family have already won a court order forcing
Mandla - officially chief of the Mandela clan - to return the bodies
that he allegedly dug up in 2011 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.
The three
Mandela children buried in Mvezo are an infant girl who died in 1948, a
boy, Thembi, who died in a car crash in 1969, and Makgatho, who died of
an AIDS-related illness in 2005.
In all, Mandela fathered six children from his three marriages.
"We
have started our investigation and we will send the case to the senior
prosecutor for a decision on whether to prosecute or not," said Eastern
Cape police spokesman Mzukisi Fatyela.
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