Nelson Mandela’s estate valued at $4.1m

Nelson Mandela has left his roughly $4.1m estate to his wife Graca Machel, family members, staff, schools and the African National Congress, according to a summary of his will.

Two months after the death of the 95-year-old South African statesman, lawyers said on Monday that Graca Machel was likely to waive her right to half the estate, opting instead to receive four properties in Mozambique and other assets.

AFP news agency reported that royalties from his books and other projects, as well as his homes in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Qunu and Mthatha were left to a family trust.

The home in Houghton, Johannesburg where Mandela died on December 5, will be used by the family of his deceased son Makgatho.

“It is my wish that it should also serve as a place of gathering of the Mandela and Machel family in order to maintain its unity long after death,” Mandela wrote.

Mandela’s children each received $300,000 in loans during his lifetime and will have that debt scrapped if it has not been repaid.

The will was first written in 2004 and last amended in 2008.

Executor Dikgang Moseneke, deputy head of South Africa’s Constitutional Court, said the reading of the will to the family had been “charged with emotion” but no one had yet contested it.

Mandela’s other bequeathments reflected a life in politics and championing education. He gave about $4,500 each to members of staff, including long-time personal aide Zelda la Grange.

The will also provides about $9,000 each for Wits and Fort Hare universities, and the same amount to three other schools.
The ANC, which Mandela led to victory in the first democratic elections in 1994, could receive between 10 and 30 percent of his royalties.

The cash will be used specifically to promote “policies and principles of reconciliation among the people of South Africa.”