PHOTO | FILIPPO MONTEFORTE Candles are seen burning by a portrait of Nelson Mandela outside of the Mediclinic Heart hospital in Pretoria on July 6, 2013.  AFP
A sensational feud has now consumed the family of ailing anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, shocking South Africans and the world.

Leaders have called for calm and reconciliation as the revered global icon lies in a Pretoria hospital fighting for his life.

At the centre of the family wrangles — drawn out by money, power, legacy and sexual relations — is Mandla Mandela, a grandson to the former South African President and a number of other family members.

South Africans have been expressing outrage with retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu saying in a statement distributed by the South African Press Agency that what some of the Mandelas were doing was tantamount to “spitting in his face”.
On Sunday, it emerged that King Zwelibanzi Dalindyebo of the Abathembu Nation, to which the Mandela family belongs had removed Mandla from his duties.

But even as the raging dispute has captured the South African nation, unperturbed well-wishers continue to stream to the hospital where Mr Mandela remains hospitalised to offer their prayers and stand with him. The Mandela House in Soweto Township and the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg have had an increased number of visitors as some South Africans and tourists seek to connect to the Mandela story through the exhibitions.
Prayers and vigils have been held all over South Africa as the family and the nation hold onto the nation’s first black president.

But as the prayers and messages of goodwill pour in, the family has been restless over what appears to be the fight for this or that piece of legacy from the anti-apartheid hero who endured prison for 27 years to battle racism in his country and shocked the world by forgiving his jailers when he was freed.

King Dalindyebo said Mandla – himself an ANC member of Parliament - was being expelled “from all rank of duties” over the family feud, which erupted after it was revealed he had moved bodies of three of his grandfather’s children to his village of Mvezo in Eastern Cape province in 2011.

The king is quoted as saying both he and the Mandela family have been angered by Mandla’s conduct during the recent spat over the exhumation and re-burial of the three bodies, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported.

Earlier, the king accused Mandla of trying to dethrone him. Mandla however denied this and asked the king to leave him alone.