Mandla Mandela's legal team yesterday used a Constitutional Court ruling on another case to stop the media from publishing facts on his divorce case with estranged first wife Thando Mabunu-Mandela.

Former state president Nelson Mandela's eldest grandson and Mabunu-Mandela squared off again in the Mthatha High Court yesterday.

Sowetan's sister publication, the Daily Dispatch, has previously reported that the pair were currently embroiled in a divorce - with Mabunu-Mandela demanding half of their joint estate.

But even before proceedings could start, Mandla's legal team raised the issue of a Constitutional Court ruling on a case involving Johncom vs Others, wherein they claimed that in a high-profile divorce case, the media could not report on the facts of the case if a child was involved.

They claimed although Mandla and his estranged wife did not have a child together, the former was now a father to a six-month old baby and it would not be in the best interest of the child to have the facts of the case published.

Mandla has a son with his fourth wife, Nosekeni Rabia Mandela.

Billy Gudelfinger, one of Mandla's lawyers, said the media would have to make a formal application to the court to show if it was in the public interest to publish the facts surrounding the case.

Judge Fatima Dawood then asked the media if it would make a formal application, to which reporters in the court said "no".

But after asking for a short adjournment, Gudelfinger told the media that "even making a formal application would still be a waste of time as we would still object to it [facts of the case being published in court] because there is a child involved".