By Sheena Adams
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela says she is able to prove she owns the Soweto house currently the subject of a massive legal tussle.
Her employees are still reporting for duty at the house and her lawyer, Solani Gudlhuza, said Madikizela-Mandela intended to appeal against a Johannesburg High Court ruling last week instructing her to hand over ownership and control of the Winnie Mandela and Family Museum in Orlando West to the Soweto Heritage Trust.
Gudlhuza said the sheriff of the court had not yet evicted his client's employees from the museum but when the notice of appeal had been filed, any action would be forcibly halted.
Last week's ruling followed a three-year battle by Madikizela-Mandela to retain ownership.
"With the income generated by the museum, my client supports her children and grandchildren," he said.
The house was the family home of the Mandelas before the former president went to jail in 1962.
After Mandela divorced Madikizela-Mandela in 1995, he bought the house from the Johannesburg's Southern Local Council for just under R3 000 and handed it over to the Soweto Heritage Trust.
The home was turned into a museum in 1997 and began attracting international tourists with its visual depiction of apartheid.
Gudlhuza, however, said Madikizela-Mandela could provide the court with documents proving the council had sold Mandela the house under "irregular circumstances".
"That house was subject to free transfer as were thousands of others in Soweto and on the East Rand. Mama (Madikizela-Mandela) laid claim to a free transfer in 1995. It qualified for a free transfer because it was already more than 30 years old. Mr Gudlhuza added the house was registered in the name of Mrs Madikizela-Mandela's stepson, Mr Makgatho Mandela, because women were not allowed to own houses at the time.
"After Mama was banished to Brandfort in 1977, nobody lived in it so it was repossessed by the council. She instructed her lawyer to get the house back because she wanted it for her children."
Her lawyer of the time, Ismail Ayob, was unsuccessful so she called on the help of another political ally, Gudlhuza said, who managed to get the house registered in the name of her stepson.
In 1998, the Soweto Heritage Trust applied to have Madikizela-Mandela evicted from the house. She, in turn, applied for the transfer of ownership, from Mandela to the Trust, declared illegal. Gudlhuza said the house held "sentimental value" for his client and that the umbilical cords of two of her children, Zenani and Zindzi, were buried in the garden.
Nthato Motlana, of the Soweto Heritage Trust, said it would make a statement soon.