Mandela Gives Job Back to Estranged Wife After She Files Suit

In a setback for the South African government, Winnie Mandela unexpectedly won her job back Wednesday as a deputy Cabinet minister after filing a lawsuit against her estranged husband, President Nelson Mandela.

The reinstatement of the scandal-plagued Mrs. Mandela--at least for now--clearly was a major embarrassment for the year-old democratic government, which had cited her sacking on March 27 as evidence of its attempts to crack down on graft in government and lawlessness in society.

Deputy President Thabo Mbeki indicated that Mrs. Mandela’s return as deputy minister of arts, culture, science and technology may be short-lived, however.

In a statement, Mbeki said the president had reversed the ouster to “avoid protracted litigation.”

Mbeki said Mandela had decided that the dismissal “should be treated as technically and procedurally invalid.” He said Mandela will “consider her position . . . afresh” after he returns today from a trip to several Persian Gulf nations.

Analysts said the government’s about-face was a major victory for the combative Mrs. Mandela, whose roller-coaster career already includes having been reborn politically several times after appearing publicly doomed. Her successful counterattack also gave an obvious boost to her political future and the militant following she commands in black squatter camps and townships.

“President Mandela looks very foolish,” said Eugene Nyati, director of the Center for African Studies. “Very clearly, it’s a severe loss of face for the government and the president himself. And it’s a tremendous political and legal victory for Mrs. Mandela.”

“I hate South Africa giving the appearance of a banana republic,” Nyati said. “But the president is clearly surrounded by people who are incompetent. . . . At the very least, you’d think the president would have legal counsel who would adhere to the letter of the law in a matter as sensitive as this.”

Mrs. Mandela’s lawyer, Willie Seriti, said in a telephone interview that he had agreed to drop the lawsuit in exchange for her immediate reinstatement. He said the government also agreed to pay her legal costs. “We got what we asked for,” Seriti said.

This marks the second time in two months that Mrs. Mandela has discomfited her estranged husband’s government by using the courts to overturn its bungled attempts to rein her in.

Saying it was improperly drawn, a court last month ruled invalid a search warrant that police had used to seize thousands of documents at Mrs. Mandela’s home and offices in a search for evidence of bribery and influence-peddling. The police were forced to return the material, and no charges have been filed.

In the current case, Mrs. Mandela sued the president in a Pretoria court on Friday, contending that her dismissal was “unlawful and unconstitutional.”

She said the law entitles her to a detailed written explanation of why she was fired. And she complained that the president’s terse termination letter was not imprinted with the seal of the republic, as required for official documents.

Central to her plea, however, was an affidavit from an unlikely political ally, Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, who is home affairs minister and head of the Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party.

Buthelezi said he had not been consulted before the sacking. A clause in the interim constitution requires the president to consult leaders of the three parties in the coalition government before firing a Cabinet appointee.

Mbeki acknowledged Buthelezi’s objection Wednesday, saying that “attempts were made” to reach the Zulu leader but that he was traveling and was notified later.