Nelson Mandela's lawyer on Monday said he was taking legal steps to protect his client from commercial exploitation following reports that a former confidant may have mismanaged the elder statesman's charity funds.
Prominent lawyer George Bizos is representing the Nelson Mandela Foundation in a suit against its former lawyer Ismail Ayob after between US$4.9 million and US$6.5 million went missing during Ayob's tenure, the Sunday Times newspaper reported.
Ayob and his associate Ross Calder allegedly tried to sell artworks signed by Mandela, according to the report, which said the venture went bankrupt.
"The proceedings are being taken mainly for the protection of Mandela's name and reputation, but also in the interests of the public to whom things are being marketed in his name in many parts of the world at exorbitant prices," Bizos said in a statement on Monday.
A Nobel Prize winner who served as South Africa's first black president from 1994 to 1999, Mandela has built a charity empire that includes his Nelson Mandela Foundation and two other smaller organizations, the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund and the Mandela Rhodes scholarship foundation.
AIDS awareness and rural education have been the prime focus of Mandela's charity work, which relies mostly on donations from corporate and private donors.
The Sunday Times had quoted Ayob's son as saying that Mandela was losing his grip and that all the money raised on behalf of the foundation was going to the family, in particular Mandela's daughters Makaziwe and Zenani.
The newspaper claimed that Makaziwe and Zenani were the owners of a company that was trying to sell the artworks, apparently with the involvement of Ayob and Calder.
"Mandela's dispute is with Ayob and Calder and not with his children," Bizos said on Monday.
"Two of his children have been embroiled by Mr Ayob in the dispute well after it arose for his own purpose. They are on good terms with their father. He has had discussions with them. They have agreed as to how the matter should be handled," Bizos said.
Bizos denied claims in the newspaper that Mandela was unable to manage his affairs due to age, saying: "This is not so."
"His efforts on behalf of the Mandela Children''s Fund, the Foundation and fund raising for health, education and the alleviation of poverty are well known. He works hard at it," Bizos said.
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