Madiba+obsessed+with+money,+The+Star



=Madiba obsessed with money, claims Ayob=

The Star, Johannesburg, July 13, 2005

 * By Shaun Smillie and Kevin Ritchie**

Nelson Mandela's former lawyer, Ismail Ayob, has finally broken his silence.

Claiming that he and his family have been the subject of a vicious vendetta authored by Mandela to publicly humiliate them and ostracise them from the Indian community, Ayob has responded by painting a picture of Mandela as a senile, money-grubbing opportunist.

Ayob claims Mandela was hell- bent on amassing as much money as possible for himself and his family.

Mandela accuses Ayob of peddling artworks bearing his name, failing to account for business transactions on his behalf and consistently refusing to draw up his will.

In a 320-page answering affidavit lodged at the Johannesburg High Court on Friday, Ayob claims he has never done anything to harm Mandela or Mandela's legacy in the many years he represented the family.

Ayob claims that, far from being kept in the dark about the proposed sale of the controversial artworks, Mandela "was delighted with the prospect of earning substantial sums of money from the artworks... and co-operated fully and with enthusiasm in the development of the artwork project".

Mandela later denied ever signing artworks and Ayob says he was forced to show Mandela photographs of him doing just that to get him to concede that he had in fact signed the works.

He claims he and fellow trustees, human rights advocates George Bizos SC and Wim Trengove SC, had to dissuade Mandela from signing an agreement allowing businessman Douw Steyn, who owned Shambala game farm, to exploit Mandela's name to market the farm in return for 20% of all profits.

Angered at the loss of "large sums of money" from Steyn, Ayob claims Mandela then went ahead and personally approached "a number of influential and wealthy businessmen" to get them to donate funds for his and his family's needs.

Within 18 months, businessman Clifford Elphick and the consortium of businessmen raised R18,5- million. To keep these funds separate, the Nelson Mandela Trust, as distinct from the Mandela Trust, was created.

The Mandela Trust was created, Ayob claims, to prevent the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Nelson Mandela's Children Fund from getting any of the royalties from a second set of artworks, the Robben Island Series I artworks, of which Oprah Winfrey bought a set for $200 000 (R1,2-million).

This was done after Mandela had an argument with the chief executive of the Children's Fund over what percentage of the profits the fund should receive.

Ayob claims Mandela regularly signed artworks, signing 1 700 a day in his Houghton home and between 1 700 and 2 000 on one occasion in Maputo. He also signed 240 frontispieces for Long Walk to Freedom for $60 000 (R380 000).

Mandela was obsessed with making money, Ayob says, demanding payment for his signature on T-shirts, books, baseball caps and photographs, first at R500 and eventually charging R10 000 for each signed photograph.

He says he advised Mandela's office that this could lead to adverse publicity.

On another occasion, Ayob says he walked into Mandela's home to find him signing hundreds of copies of his autobiography for a major company paying him R500 a copy.

Bizos was unwilling to comment last night.


 * From: http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=128&fArticleId=2622976