20111225
AFP
Nelson Mandela's grandson will tie the knot with a third wife in a traditional ceremony Saturday despite a court ban on the wedding, according to a report.

All systems were go for chief Mandla Mandela's union with Swazi princess Mbali Makhathini at the Mvezo Royal Palace in rural Eastern Cape province, family spokesman Sidima Mnqanqeni told Sapa news agency.

"We are confident that there will be no disturbance and the marriage is on," said Mnqanqeni.

Mandla is a grandson of former South African president Nelson Mandela and also a member of parliament. He heads the Mandela family clan.

A South African court Thursday granted his first and currently only legal wife a ban on him marrying another woman, for the second time in seven months.

Tando Mabunu-Mandela successfully claimed her civil law union with Mandla Mandela blocks his marriage to customary wives.

South Africa allows a person to be married either to one spouse under civil law or several spouses under customary law. He cannot have wives under the different laws at the same time.

Mabunu-Mandela had her estranged husband's 2010 marriage to a woman from Reunion Island declared illegal in May this year on the same grounds.

A sheriff this week seized assets worth 100,000 rands ($12,000, 9,000 euros) from Mandla after he failed to pay maintenance to Mabunu-Mandela pending their divorce that has been lagging since 2009.

Mandla Mandela blamed his wife for the delays in the divorce, but said he would make a new divorce offer.

"Instead of engaging these offers seriously, Ms Mabunu appears intent on delaying the matter indefinitely while attracting negative publicity," Mandela said in a statement.

Nelson Mandela was elected the country's first black president in South Africa's first all-race vote in 1994 and served one term before stepping down in 1999.

The anti-apartheid icon, now 93, returned to his rural home in June after being discharged from hospital in January where he was treated for an acute respiratory infection.