Winnie Mandela says her divorce was “a blessing in disguise”

Ex-wife of Nelson Mandela, Winnie Madikizela Mandela is of the opinion that Mandela should never have given the Qunu property to his third wife and former 1st lady of Mozambique, Graca Machel.

Winnie granted her first interview since the death of Mandela after the family’s cleansing ritual at the weekend to mark Mandela’s one year remembrance. Winnie filed papers in Mthatha High Court challenging Mandel’s estate, seeking to nullify rights to his home

"I let him live on my property, I wasn't going to evict him simply because he was married to a third wife"

“I only knew when he passed away that he had bequeathed my property to his third wife and her children”

Asked why she waited until, Mandela died to challenge the matter, she said

“All I was interested in was my property. It is such a pity he is no longer there for me to ask just what on earth would have brought him to elect that he would take my land and give it away to someone who actually has a whole world in Mozambique, because she's got her four houses in Mozambique."

This property is mine and I attained it when the old man was on Robben Island, and there's no dispute about that.”

She said she bore no grudges against Machel and that her divorce from Mandela was a blessing in disguise.

“It was fine. I never bore her any grudge. I was much better off remaining as I was … to me the divorce was a blessing in disguise because I continued being myself. I never basked in the shadow of the old man. I created my own legacy.”