Mandela grandson faces criminal charges [South Africa]
Kathryn Kimberley
Tando Mabunu-Mandela opened a case with the Bityi police station in the Transkei after her estranged husband defied a court order not to marry a third woman in a traditional ceremony last Saturday.
Already fighting civil charges in the Mthatha High Court, the criminal charge is the latest blow to Mandela - a Member of Parliament - and the provincial ANC leadership has now urged senior members of the Mandela family to intervene and take charge of a situation they fear has spiraled out of control.
It was last year that Mandela went against Mabunu-Mandela's wishes to marry a second wife, French teenager Anais Grimaud.
Though the two have since had a child the marriage was annulled by the court some months later after the presiding officer found that Mandela did not have a right to marry more than one woman because he and Mabunu-Mandela were already married under civil law.
According to the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act "no spouse of a marriage entered into under the Marriage Act of 1991, is, during the sustenance of such marriage, competent to enter into another marriage".
The act further states that a civil marriage and a traditional African marriage could never coexist between a husband and two or more wives.
