THE South African President, Mr Nelson Mandela, told a divorce hearing yesterday his estranged wife, Winnie (61), had turned him into the loneliest man and humiliated him publicly with her brazen conduct and infidelity.
Mr Mandela, seeking to rid, himself of the woman who kept up his struggle against apartheid during his 27 years in prison and who stood beside him on his release in 1990, said he was saddened to have to wash his dirty linen in public.
"Ever since I came back from prison, not once has the defendant ever entered our bedroom while I was awake," the 77-year-old told the Rand Supreme Court in Johannesburg.
"The bedroom is where a man and woman discuss the most intimate details. There were so many things I wanted to discuss with her, but she is the type of person who fears confrontation.
"I was the loneliest man during the period I stayed with her," said a sad-looking Mr Mandela, in a grey pinstriped suit.
When his wife, a member of parliament whom Mr Mandela sacked as deputy arts minister last year, entered the courtroom, he smiled, but she turned away.
Mr Mandela's lawyer told the crowded court that Ms Mandela's "brazen public conduct and infidelity" embarrassed the president.
Mr Mandela named Mr Dali Mpofu, a young ANC lawyer, as his wife's former lover, and said he had been forced to reveal the unhappy details to counter her claim that there were other reasons for the divorce.
Mr Mandela said reconciliation was a lost cause and rejected Ms Mandela's idea that an elder from the Tembu tribe they belong to act as a marriage counsellor.
"If the entire universe persuaded me to reconcile with the defendant I would not. . .I am determined to get rid of the marriage," Mr Mandela said in a surprise testimony in court.
Earlier he told how he shared some of his happiest moments with his wife, whom he married in 1958. "I wanted to make the parting as painless as possible because we had children," he said. The couple have two grown-up daughters, Zindzi and Zenani.
Ms Mandela, whose lawyer will cross-examine her husband today, claimed in papers filed to the court yesterday that the "slight tension" between the pair really arose from her trial for the kidnapping of 14-year-old activist, Stompie Seipei. She was sentenced to six years in jail for kid napping the boy her bodyguard killed but the sentence was reduced to a fine.
"I supported her fully because when she told me she was innocent I accepted that. I attended court every day because I believed in her innocence," Mr Mandela countered.
Ms Mandela's counter-claim is that she should be advised of the full extent of Mr Mandela's assets and liabilities.