Eastern Cape: Nelson Mandela`s oldest grandson, who is also a member of South Africa`s parliament, was found guilty Tuesday of assaulting a motorist two years ago in the latest scandal to tarnish the Mandela family.
A magistrates` court in Mthatha, in Eastern Cape province, heard charges brought against Mandla Mandela by a local motorist, who accused the 40-year-old of assaulting him during a road-rage incident.
"The magistrate found Mandla Mandela guilty of assault with grievous bodily harm, and acquitted him on a charge of pointing a firearm," said Luxolo Tyali, a spokesman for the prosecution.
A pre-sentencing hearing was scheduled for early June.
Mandela, who is also the tribal chief of Mvezo village, the late Mandela`s birthplace, has been a member of parliament for the African National Congress (ANC) since 2009.
He is no stranger to controversy.
In 2013, members of his family obtained a court order forcing him to exhume the remains of his grandfather`s children.
The family claimed he had dug up the graves of the icon`s children in the family gravesite in Qunu and reburied them in Mvezo without their consent.
The remains were that of Mandla`s own father Makgatho Mandela, who died in 2005, as well as Nelson`s daughter Makaziwe who died as an infant in 1948 and second son Thembekile who passed away in 1969.
The case played out while South Africa`s first black president, who died on December 5 2013, was still alive. It exposed ugly divisions in the family prompting entreaties of calm from Archbishop Desmond Tutu.