17 July 2005
Johannesburg — ISMAIL Ayob denies responsibility for the tennis racquet hastily withdrawn from sale at a London art gallery, which had claimed it once belonged to Nelson Mandela. Ayob recalls only that his former business partner in the Mandela art projects, Ross Calder, had "said something to me in passing at one point in time" about the racquet. Calder bought the racquet "from a former prison warder who was employed on Robben Island .... I do not know who the beneficiary of the proceeds of the sale of this tennis racket would have been". Calder has yet to respond to Mandela's application for an interdict.
Ayob strongly disputes allegations by Mandela's friend and advocate, George Bizos, that he refused to prepare a will for Mandela. Ayob has produced the title pages of three wills, one codicil and a scheme of arrangement for Mandela's funeral. Only the title pages are included in Ayob's submission to the court, out of respect for the documents' privilege.
Ayob has drawn into the fray the senior judge who is presiding over his dispute with Mandela, Judge Phineas Mojapelo.
Mandela's court papers include an affidavit from Bizos, in which he states that he advised Ayob not to represent Mandela in the 1996 divorce from his wife, Winnie Mandela, because of Ayob's prior role as her attorney.
Ayob says that "Bizos belatedly suggested that a certain Mr Mojapelo. .. should act as [Mandela's] attorney".
Ayob said he objected to this suggestion because at the time Mojapelo "conducted a sole practitioners' practice in Nelspruit" and "would hardly be able to conduct a high profile defended divorce from an office hundreds of kilometres from Johannesburg".
At this point Mojapelo disappears from the script - until nine years later, when he was assigned to preside over the case.
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