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Madiba would be disappointed: Mandla

"He would have asked every member of the family if there are any secondary thoughts on his recommendation. I am here because of his own grooming and recommendation."

Former president Nelson Mandela would be disappointed at the situation that unfolded in the Eastern Cape High Court, his grandson Mandla Mandela said in Mvezo on Thursday.

"My grandfather like myself would be highly disappointed in what is unravelling," he told reporters.

"He would have asked every member of the family if there are any secondary thoughts on his recommendation. I am here because of his own grooming and recommendation."

Mandla Mandela spoke in detail how his grandfather had taught him from a young age about taking over the village.

He said his grandfather's last will and testament remained a secret, and remained with people he appointed to administer it.

"I received an instruction [from] my aunt Makaziwe to remove remains and bury them in secret in Qunu where she is preparing a grave for my grandfather," he said.

"I didn't follow those instructions, because [it was] not coming from my grandfather, I took the remains and kept them here [Mvezo] until I received information from my grandfather or instructions from his spouse Graca [Machel]."

The Eastern Cape High Court on Wednesday dismissed Mandla Mandela's application to halt the exhumations of Mandela's three children.

Mandla Mandela exhumed and moved the graves from Qunu to Mvezo in 2011.

A group of Mandela family members, led by Makaziwe Mandela, approached the court to have the bodies exhumed and moved back to the family graveyard in Qunu.

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