Mandela children exhumed to be moved to his childhood village
Sheriff forces gates open to allow hearses to take remains from grandson's estate after court order
The remains of three of Nelson Mandela's children have been exhumed to be returned to his childhood village following a bitter family feud over the ailing anti-apartheid hero's final resting place.
The row comes as the 94-year-old former political prisoner, who became South Africa's first black president, lies critically ill for the fourth week in hospital.
In dramatic scenes that unfolded on Wednesday in front of the world's media, a sheriff forced open the gates to the estate of Mandela's grandson Mandla with a pickaxe to allow three hearses to enter the property, where the disputed remains were moved in 2011, allegedly without the family's consent.
It came hours after a court in the nearby city of Mthatha ordered Mandla, 39, to immediately move the graves back to Qunu, about 30 kilometres away, where Mandela grew up and where he said he wanted to be buried. The judge described the grandson's actions as "scandalous".
Mandla's decision to move the remains were apparently linked to his efforts to have Mandela buried in Mvezo, where Mandla is a village chief. He has built a number of Mandela-related tourist attractions in Mvezo.