Mandela family feud over burial place laid bare in court Nelson Mandela's daughter Makaziwe and grandson Ndaba at the Mthatha high court. Photograph: Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images The bitter feud in Nelson Mandela's family over the unauthorised removal of the remains of three of his children from the family graveyard was laid bare in open court on Tuesday while the anti-apartheid hero lay critically ill in hospital. Lawyers for 16 members of Mandela's family - including his wife, Graca Machel, and his eldest daughter, Makaziwe - sought to enforce the immediate return of the bodies for reburial in Mandela's home village of Qunu, where he has said he wishes to be interred with his late family. The remains were secretly exhumed in 2011 by his grandson Mandla Mandela and moved to the nearby village of Mvezo, where Mandela was born. The case has gripped South Africa in the midst of its grief over Mandela's failing health. The family has traded recriminations with Mandla, an ANC MP, amid calls for him to be stripped of his status as a local tribal chief. Journalists were admitted to the court hearing for the first time on Tuesday, after Friday's session was heard in private because of the deeply sensitive issues involved. Mandla has been accused by other family members of removing the bodies "in the dead of night" to ensure the future burial of the former president in Mvezo, despite the expressed desire of Mandela to be buried in nearby Qunu where he grew up. It has been suggested that Mandla hopes to transform Mvezo - where he has built a memorial and guesthouse - into a centre of pilgrimage as the last resting place of South Africa's first democratically elected president. The case was called to the high court in Mthatha, in the Eastern Cape, after an initial court order issued on Friday ordering the return of the remains was found to have an error regarding the date by which Mandla was required to return the bodies. According to media reports, the family's lawyers argued that the return of the bodies was required urgently over fears that Mandela's death was imminent. Makaziwe and two of Mandela's grandchildren, Ndaba and Ndileka, listened as Mandla - who was not present in court - was accused of "reprehensible behaviour" over the affair. Mandla's lawyer Phillip Zilwa accused the court of issuing the initial order without allowing his client to defend himself. The judge Lusindiso Pakade provisionally ordered Mandla to return the remains by 3pm on Wednesday while he considered written arguments from both sides over whether or not to revoke the order. It was claimed that criminal charges were being considered against Mandla over the exhumation.