NELSON MANDELA - MANDELA'S EX-WIFE IN COURT

The ex-wife of South Africa's former president NELSON MANDELA went before a court in Pretoria on Monday (21JUN04) to appeal her five-year sentence for fraud and theft.

WINNIE MADIKIZELA-MANDELA - the former president of the AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS WOMEN'S LEAGUE (ANCWL) - was convicted last April (03) on 43 charges of fraud and 25 of theft totalling 1 million rand ($156,000/GBP86,600).

However her lawyer ISHMAEL SEMENYA says her client - known as the Mother of the Nation - was only trying to help her clients when she obtained fraudulent bank loans for them by creating fictitious ANCWL employees.

Semenya explains, "The only thing she was trying to do was a valiant attempt to create a credible system for people to obtain financing that would not otherwise be able to approach a bank.

"She tried to do social good and there no attempt at self-enrichment."

The charges against Madikizela-Mandela and her fellow-accused, broker ADDY MOOLMAN, also pertain to his arranging for per

Semenya argues that Madikizela-Mandela did not receive a fair trial - and that the magistrate had made a "credibility finding" against her before she even testified.

The court reserved judgment until 5 July (04).

The couple separated in 1992, two years before Mandela became South Africa's first democratically elected president and divorced in 1996.