Nelson Mandela’s Grandson, 24, Appears in Court After Being Charged with Raping 15-Year-Old Girl
Jay Akbar, Daily Mail, August 18, 2015
Nelson Mandela’s grandson has been charged with raping a 15-year-old in a toilet in South Africa.
Mbuso Mandela, 24, appeared at a Johannesburg court yesterday and will be held in police custody until he returns for a bail hearing on Friday, a police spokesperson said.
Mbuso Mandela in 2011.
He allegedly grabbed her as she entered a toilet at an unnamed restaurant in Greenside on Friday.
The girl who was allegedly raped by Mbuso Mandela went to the restaurant with friends, South Africa’s Daily Sun quoted her family’s spokesman as saying.
He added: ‘Apparently, she went to the toilet and he grabbed her and raped her inside one of the toilets.’
The website reported that after the alleged attack, Nelson Mandela’s second wife Winnie sent a bodyguard – who posed as a police officer – to the family’s home to intimidate them.
‘Winnie’s bodyguard went to the family pretending to be a cop,’ the family spokesman continued.
‘The father was told there was no need to arrest the suspect but when the father asked to see his badge, he didn’t have one. It turned out he had been sent by Winnie.’
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela reportedly promised to hand her grandson in to the police, and said she would call a press conference, but neither happened.
The family spokesman added that the alleged victim’s family was angered by the way the Mandelas had treated them.
He said: ‘Just because they have a famous surname, they think they can get away with crime… The girl is young and doesn’t even drink.’
A Gauteng police spokesman said a case of rape was opened on 14 August. Brigadier Mashadi Selepe added that a suspect who could not be named would appear in Johannesburg Regional Court today.
Another one of Nelson Mandela’s grandchildren, Mandla, was convicted of assaulting a 40-year-old motorist during a road-rage incident earlier this year.
