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Mandela’s Will Leaves $4 Million to Family, Staff, Schools, ANC
Mandela’s will is more than a dry account of who gets what. The 40-page document, he wrote in 2004, reflects that he was a meticulous and generous man. Executors for Mandela’s estate, which they valued at $4.1 million, say the assets will mostly go to his family from his three marriages. He also made bequests to the African National Congress party, former staff members and schools.
One of the will’s executors, South Africa’s Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke, stated that the will is exhaustive. He went on to explain, “I think you will find it quite an interesting read. Because quite often he expresses why he makes virtually every bequest, so it is part of the reason it would run to so many pages… because he tries to have a rational ground for making the bequest, a rational and emotional ground, but nonetheless an explained one.”
Moseneke also indicated that he was not aware of any legal challenges to the will. Executors read the document to Mandela’s family before appearing before journalists. The large family, which has previously been embroiled in legal squabbles over the former president’s wealth and wishes, left without saying anything to reporters.
Last month, family members publicly squabbled over who will lead the family and to complicate matters, Moseneke said the will does not address family power positioning. He added that the will states Mandela loaned each of his children about $300,000 before his death and that he was releasing them from that loan. Furthermore, there was no mention in the will of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, to whom he was married longest.
It is unclear what Mandela’s third wife, his widow Graca Machel, will end up receiving in the final settlement. It is known that under community property law she could be entitled to half of his estate. However, the will asks her to surrender her rights within 90 days for a list of items that was not given to journalists.
Personal chef, Xoliswa Ndoyiya, and eight other members of Mandela’s staff received about $4,500. His chef happily stated that she was surprised at the bequest and said, “It gave me a shock of my life … I got shocked that he has remembered me, that he can give me something.”
Mandela, who spoke often about the importance of education, left about $9,000 to every school he attended, plus two others in areas where he lived. What was most telling is that he left money to an institution that discriminated against him when he was a student, as pointed out by University of the Witwatersrand Vice Chancellor Adam Habib.
“Well it is ironic,” noted Habib, “I have been on record as saying that Wits apologizes for that. His experience at Wits was both positive and negative. It was positive, if you look at his biography, he says that it opened him up to ideas, but it was also negative in the sense that he was treated badly.”
Habib also went on to point out, “And I do not think we should hide that… I think we should recognize that and we should learn the lessons from that. … The will is quite clear that is for scholarships and for bursaries. And that is exactly what we will dedicate it to. We will dedicate it to addressing or contributing to addressing the challenge of inequality.”
George Bizos, Mandela’s best friend and lawyer who also served as an executor, said the document is a reflection of an extraordinary man. “He gave reasons why he wanted to give to educational institutions, because he wanted people, disadvantaged throughout their lives, to really be treated in a way as human beings,” he told reporters as he wiped tears from his face. “This was his credo, this is what he hoped for all of us.”
Source: Voice of America