South Africa: Winnie Madikizela-Mandela (67) avoided going to jail yesterday when Pretoria High Court reduced her prison sentence for fraud to a suspended sentence, but she vowed to appeal again.
Nelson Mandela's former wife was sentenced to jail last year over a bank loan scam, but freed on bail pending an appeal.
Her lawyers say she was not motivated by personal gain when she signed letters seeking bank loans for bogus employees of the ANC Women's League she then headed.
The court quashed her conviction on 25 counts of theft but upheld 43 counts of fraud. It cut her initial sentence of five years with one suspended to 3½ years, suspended for five.
Scores of students outside the court cheered the decision but Madikizela-Mandela emerged defiant from the court and said she would appeal against her conviction despite the reduced sentence.
"I have given instructions to my lawyers to appeal against a judgment which is completely wrong," she told reporters over the sound of supporters singing anti-apartheid struggle songs.
The former "Mother of the Nation" was never expected to serve long behind bars.
The judge who first sentenced her expected her to serve only eight months.
Yesterday's partial victory offered a gleam of hope for her political rehabilitation.
Her co-accused, broker Addy Moolman, had all 25 theft convictions against him quashed, but 58 counts of fraud were upheld. His five-year jail sentence was cut by one year. - (Reuters)