Three bodies of Nelson Mandela’s family were exhumed on Wednesday. Before the bodies can be returened to Qunu they will undergo forensic tests, according to an Eastern Cape police officer. Lieutenant-Colonel Mzukisi Fatyela said:

The bodies remain at a mortuary in Mthatha.

The forensic testing would take place at 09h00 on Thursday morning and after the tests the bodies would return to Qunu for reburial, said Lieutenant-Colonel Fatyela.

A pickaxe was used by an official in the sheriff’s office on Wednesday afternoon to break the gate to the Mvezo Village. Once the gate had been opened, three hearses and police vans entered. The bodies were immediately exhumed by health officials.

In 2011 Mandla Mandela, Nelson Mandela’s grandson, exhumed three bodies from Qunu and had them moved to Mvezo. Recent reports have seen a Mandela court case playing out in the Eastern Cape High Court, where Nelson’s daughter Makaziwe was seeking to have the bodies returned to their original resting place. Judge Lusindiso Pakade stated on Wednesday that Mandla’s actions were “scandalous” and the bodies were to be exhumed and returned to Qunu.

The three bodies exhumed are those of Mandela’s eldest son Madiba Thembekile who died in a car accident in 1969, Mandela’s father Makgatho who died in 2005 and Mandela’s first daughter Makaziwe Mandela who passed in 1948.

[Source: IOL]