South Africa: Lawyer in hot water over Zindzi Mandela tweet
Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) – A Johannesburg lawyer is being investigated by the Legal Practice Council (LPC) over an offensive tweet he sent following the death of Nelson Mandela’s daughter Zindzi Mandela.
Marc Aupiais is accused of saying that the former ambassador to Denmark “finally got her plot of land” in reference to her burial site next to her late mother Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
Zindzi Mandela frequently criticised of the government’s attempt to implement land reform policies. She also endorsed the appropriation of Apartheid-era land without compensation.
The LPC has received a complaint signed by 29 lawyers who accuse Aupiais of “potentially bringing the legal profession into disrepute”.
They state that his comments violate the values of human dignity and equality as enshrined in the Constitution. LPC spokesperson Sthembiso Mnisi said the complaint had been referred to a disciplinary panel.
Mandela was born in Soweto in 1960, the year that her father’s African National Congress launched an armed wing. She was just 18 months old when he was sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island.
In 1985, she made headlines around the world when her father was offered a conditional release by the then State President P. W. Botha. Zindzi was chosen to read his refusal at a public meeting.
She told thousands of supporters and a global television audience that her father says “prisoners cannot enter into contracts”.
"My father says, I am surprised at the conditions the government wants to impose on me, I am not a violent man. My colleagues and I wrote in 1952 to (Prime Minister Daniel) Malan, asking for a roundtable conference to find a solution to the problems of our country, but that was ignored," she said.
Five years later, her father was released unconditionally by former President F.W. De Klerk.
She is survived by her four children and her husband.
-0- PANA CU/AR 24July2020
