![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/nelson-mandela-with-nobel-peace-prize.jpg\" "\\"nelson-mandela-with-nobel-peace-prize\\"")
<\/a>He\u00a0 is everywhere. On a mural on a dusty wall outside a Soweto church, and on the stained-glass window inside.<\/span><\/p>\nA disproportionate enormous bronze likeness stands sentry over a posh Johannesburg shopping mall. His face gazes over the windblown fields of KwaZulu Natal where he was arrested, assembled out of laser-cut metal strips by a local artist. He is on road signs, on bridges, in school books. He is on T-shirts, clocks, coasters \u2013 and firmly in South Africa\u2019s collective consciousness.<\/span><\/p>\n Among the connotations of former President Nelson Mandela\u2019s name is its marketing worth, which runs into millions \u2013 a fact that is said to be dividing his family, and halting the 94-year-old\u2019s long-held dream to build a children\u2019s hospital.<\/span><\/p>\n It is a sad irony that the family of Tata Mandela \u2013 the \u201cfather of the nation\u201d whose face graces South Africa\u2019s new banknotes \u2013 is now fighting over cash.<\/span><\/p>\n Mr Mandela, the man who led South Africa\u2019s fight for freedom against the racist apartheid regime, represented hopes for a more equal South Africa. But it remains one of the most economically disparate in the world. Trust is ebbing in a country where, according to a recent report, corruption cost the economy nearly one billion rand (\u00a370m) last year alone. Government leaders appear to be confronting scandal after scandal. For many South Africans, recent reports that Mr Mandela\u2019s children intend to sue him for their share of his legacy, whilst their father convalesces after a bout of pneumonia, drag the country\u2019s moral compass to a new low.<\/span><\/p>\n n May, Mr Mandela\u2019s daughters Makaziwe and Zenani reportedly launched a court case against several long-time associates of the former president in a dispute over the control of two companies \u2013 Harmonieux Investment Holdings and Magnifique Investment Holdings. The companies were established primarily to channel funds from the sale of prints of the elder statesman\u2019s hands, estimated to be worth more than \u00a31.1m, for the benefit of the Mandela family.<\/span><\/p>\n The two daughters allege that lawyers George Bizos and Bally Chuene, and Cabinet minister Tokyo Sexwale, have no right to remain as company directors because they were not properly appointed, and say the three men have neglected their duties.<\/span><\/p>\n Bally Chuene, responding on behalf of himself, Bizos and Sexwale, has denied wrongdoing.<\/span><\/p>\n Mr Bizos, a human rights lawyer who helped defend the anti-apartheid leader against charges of sabotage 50 years ago and remains a close friend, has denied the allegations, saying he and his associates were appointed on Mr Mandela\u2019s wishes five years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n The 84-year-old Mr Bizos reportedly said Makaziwe Mandela\u2019s goal was to take some company money, estimated to be \u00a3860,000, without providing details of how it would be used. \u201cThis woman wanted to take over the money, not for any specific purpose, and distribute it to members of the family,\u201d a South African newspaper quoted him as saying. \u201cThat is contrary to the provisions of the trust. Therefore we refused to give her the money.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The ensuing storm \u2013 and rhetoric \u2013 has been bitter and public. In an open letter, Tukwini, Makaziwe\u2019s 38-year-old daughter, accused Mr Bizos of being a \u201cpeddler f falsehood\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou… have spent the whole of last week casting aspersions on my family, spreading blatant lies and innuendo, hoping that a trial through the media will deter us from defending our name and legacy,\u201d she wrote, adding that Mr Mandela\u2019s name \u201ccatapulted\u201d Mr Bizos into \u201cundeserved stardom\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n In a family statement, all but one of Mr Mandela\u2019s grandchildren said all three company directors have tried to portray the Mandela family as \u201cinsensitive money-grabbers\u201d with no respect for the legacy of the anti-apartheid leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.<\/span><\/p>\n The Mandela family includes three daughters from two marriages, 17 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. Mandla Mandela \u2013 a tribal chief in Mvezo, a village near his grandfather\u2019s hometown of Qunu \u2013 has sought to distance himself from the dispute, according to media reports.<\/span><\/p>\n Zenani and Makaziwe Mandela reportedly also intend to fight a 2004 High Court order which gave their father the right to fire his lawyer Ismail Ayob and bar Mr Ayob from selling any of Mandela\u2019s artworks. The Mandela sisters have always retained Mr Ayob as their lawyer, despite the fact that their father accused him of selling Mandela artworks without his knowledge.<\/span><\/p>\n Mr Mandela\u2019s family have hit back at accusations that they have attempted to cash in on their family name. \u201cMost of us are gainfully employed, work for our own companies and run our own projects,\u201d said the family statement, though it fails to say that some of these companies and projects use the Mandela name.<\/span><\/p>\n Alongside the 46664 clothing label and wristbands with Mr Mandela\u2019s prison number engraved in metal \u2013 which raise money for the elder statesman\u2019s charitable foundations \u2013 there are a number of commercial ventures. The \u201cHouse of Mandela\u201d wine label, for instance, run by Makaziwe Mandela and her daughter Tukwini, was launched in the US this February. The wines are produced by South African vineyards and rebranded under the \u201cHouse of Mandela\u201d label. They cost up to \u00a327 a bottle.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThey are super premium wines, the quality matches the price, and we are not shy about that,\u201d Tukwini Mandela told the local press, adding that part of the proceeds will go to charity.<\/span><\/p>\n There is also a Mandela reality television show, Being Mandela, which stars two of Mr Mandela\u2019s granddaughters \u2013 Zaziwe Dlamini-Manaway and Swati Dlamini, which follows their lives as descendants of one of the world\u2019s most iconic figures. They grew up and still live in the US, where the series was filmed and premiered in February.<\/span><\/p>\n When the show made it to South African satellite airwaves in April, there was, unsurprisingly, a backlash. \u201cIs it wrong to say this show is really about exploiting Nelson Mandela\u2019s name?\u201d social commentator and Mail & Guardian columnist Khaya Dlanga asked on Twitter. \u201cMandela went to jail for 27 years so that we can have reality shows.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The sisters insist \u201cBig Grandpa\u201d \u2013 Mandela \u2013 and \u201cBig Mommy\u201d, Mandela\u2019s second wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, are \u201cin to\u201d the show. It remains unclear whether any of the proceeds from the show will go to any of Mr Mandela\u2019s charities.<\/span><\/p>\n Sello Hatang, CEO of the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, has defended the Mandela family, and says the way people choose to remember the elder statesman is a personal choice. \u201cBut we must distinguish between \u2018Mandela\u2019 and \u2018Nelson Mandela\u2019,\u201d he told The Independent<\/em>, \u201cIt\u2019s up to them how they use it. It\u2019s not the centre\u2019s place to tell the family how to use their name.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Despite the publicity \u2013 and lucrative possibilities \u2013 of the Mandela name, it has not kept financial difficulties at bay. Last month, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela lived up to her reputation for stubbornness, refusing to allow officials from a Soweto sheriff\u2019s office onto her property, when they attempted to gain entry to auction off part of her art collection and her 24-piece silver tea service to settle a long-overdue debt.<\/span><\/p>\n Lawyers say Ms Madikizela-Mandela owes over \u00a33,200, including interest and legal costs, to a private senior school for her grandniece\u2019s accommodation while she was studying there.<\/span><\/p>\n Forced to leave because no locksmith was willing to force entry into her home, the sheriff has vowed to return with police in tow.<\/span><\/p>\n Also on hold is Tata Mandela\u2019s dream of his legacy: a children\u2019s hospital in Johannesburg. Vuyo Lutseke, spokeswoman for the Nelson Mandela Children\u2019s Hospital Trust, told The Independent that the project stems from a \u201cpersonal request\u201d from Mr Mandela himself.<\/span><\/p>\n She says they remain a third short of the crucial \u00a326m required for construction of the building, but are optimistic that funding will come through in time for the scheduled start date in August.<\/span><\/p>\n It all comes at a time when the gaps between Mr Mandela\u2019s hospital stays are getting shorter. Having been hospitalised for the third time in four months, Mr Mandela was discharged in April into the care of doctors at home, where he was subject to a controversial visit by leaders of the African National Congress. A picture with Mr Mandela still carries some hefty political capital.<\/span><\/p>\n Television footage of last month\u2019s visit by President Jacob Zuma and members of the ANC leadership with a frail Mandela, the indentations of his oxygen mask still visible on his face, blinking at the flash of a camera, caused widespread outrage across the country. It was the first time he had been seen for more than a year.<\/span><\/p>\n ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu described the elder statesman as \u201cglowing\u201d, insisting the visit was not a publicity stunt and only an attempt to \u201cshare Madiba with the world\u201d, referring to him by his clan name.<\/span><\/p>\n ANC supporters accused their political opposition, the Democratic Alliance (DA), of exploiting the Mandela name when they published a pamphlet with an old photograph of him embracing Helen Suzman, an anti-apartheid activist whose party was a forerunner of the DA.<\/span><\/p>\n Nobel Laureate Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has asked South Africans to rise above political loyalties and to prepare themselves for Mandela\u2019s inevitable death.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe best memorial to Nelson Mandela would be a democracy that was really up and running; a democracy in which every single person in South Africa knew that they mattered, and where other people knew that each person mattered,\u201d he wrote in an editorial published in a local paper.<\/span><\/p>\n Throughout the furore over the Mandela name, the Mandela millions, the Mandela legacy, one voice remains absent: that of Madiba himself.<\/span><\/p>\n In an interview for the US launch of Being Mandela in February, granddaughter Swati Dlamini revealed the most about what the elder statesman might think of all the fighting.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOur grandfather always told us that he belongs to the country and he\u2019s of service to the country and he doesn\u2019t belong to us as a family,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s the sacrifice he\u2019s made for the country and that\u2019s what he\u2019s told us as far as I can remember.”<\/span><\/p>\n