Former president Nelson Mandela’s grandson Mandla Mandela has dismissed accusations by villagers claiming he expropriated land from them, to build a stadium and a hotel

The Star newspaper said the villagers wanted to stop Mandela’s development plans as they would disregard their ancestral land and grave sites.

Mandela told the Mthatha Regional Court that the claims were scurrilous, ill-founded, defamatory and inflammatory.

He said the three men who were representing the affected families had no case as the representatives of the families had given the Mvezo Development Trust permission to proceed with developments on the land.

“They recorded that they commit as rightful owners of the land within the development site to the resolution of 2007 as facilitated by the department of land affairs... that the said property be part of development through the Mvezo Development Trust  as the owning agency,” Mandela said.