NELSON MANDELA’S ex-wife has been cleared by South Africa’s electoral court to stand for the African National Congress in this month’s general election despite having a conviction for fraud.
Opponents of Ms Madikizela-Mandela (72) lodged an appeal to the court asking that it bar the former head of the ANC Women’s League from running in the April 22nd election, saying her nomination broke constitutional rules.
According to the constitution, anyone who has been sentenced to more than 12 months in prison without the option of paying a fine cannot stand for parliament for a period of five years.
In July 2004 Ms Madikizela-Mandela received a 3½-year sentence that was suspended for five years after she was found guilty of fraud and theft.
The charges related to allowing her signature to be used to secure loans for members of the ANC Women’s League who did not exist.
Opposition parties, the Democratic Alliance and the Freedom Front Plus (FFPlus), argued that her sentence remained active until July of this year, and as such she was disqualified from standing for election.
The FFPlus had argued that the constitution’s wording, “sentenced . . . to imprisonment” also applied to a suspended sentence, and consequently Ms Madikizela-Mandela was not eligible to become a parliamentarian until after the election.
Chairman of the Electoral Court and Supreme Court of Appeal Judge Kenneth Mthiyane said on Tuesday that one had to “strain the language of the section [of the constitution]” to come to this conclusion.
The ANC welcomed the ruling, saying it had made “every effort” to ensure its candidate list complied with the constitution and Electoral Act.
Candidates were chosen by the party for their “experience, resolve and credibility” to serve the country, said a party statement.
Ms Madikizela-Mandela is a veteran of the ANC’s liberation struggle, but her image became tainted in the new South Africa as she involved herself in conflict with the law.
Aside from her 2004 conviction she was also convicted in 1991 of being behind the kidnapping of 14-year-old Stompe Seipei, an alleged police informer who was later found dead.
Her custodial sentence was reduced to a fine upon appeal.
However, she has always received the steadfast support of the poor and rural communities who know her as the “mother of the nation”.
A mark of her continued popularity surfaced recently when it was announced she was number five on the ANC’s nomination list for parliament in the 2009 general election.
Despite her troubles she has remained a member of the ruling party’s powerful decision-making body, the national executive committee.