Mandela's lament of loneliness Humiliated president tells divorce court of his wife's `brazen conduct and infidelity'

``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.

``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 type of person who fears confrontation.

``I was the loneliest man during the period I stayed with her,'' said Mr Mandela.

When his wife, who was Deputy Arts Minister in the parliament sacked by Mr Mandela last year, entered the courtroom, he smiled, but she turned away. Mr Mandela was elected President in the country's first all-race elections in 1994.

Mr Mandela's lawyer told the court, full with the curious, the media, and some of the couple's relatives, that Mrs Mandela's conduct and adultery embarrassed the President.

``Since the breakdown of the marriage in April 1992, the plaintiff has suffered considerable public embarrassment as a result of the brazen public conduct and infidelity of the defendant,'' said Wim Trengove.

``We are quite happy to adduce evidence of infidelity that would justify the assertions of the plea (the divorce application). We stand by our pleadings,'' said Mr Trengove.

Mr Mandela named Dali Mpofu, a young lawyer from his African National Congress, as his wife's former lover, and said he had been forced to reveal the unhappy details to counter Mrs Mandela's claim that there were other reasons for the divorce.

``I did not wish us to wash our dirty linen in public. Even today, I regret that I was forced to mention this matter,'' the President said. He said reconciliation with his wife was a lost cause.

Mr Mandela rejected his wife's suggestion that that an elder from their Tembu tribe should 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 added.

``We will argue there still is reasonable prospects for mediation,'' Mrs Mandela's counsel, Ismail Semenya, told the court.

He read an affidavit from a chief Kaizer Matanzima in which he said that under Tembu tribal custom senior tribal counsellors had to be brought in for mediation before a marriage could be dissolved.

The chief said he had acted for the Mandelas several times in the past and had successfully resolved their problems.

Earlier, Mr Mandela told how he shared some of his happiest moments with Mrs Mandela, the woman he married in 1958, but there was nothing left of their relationship.

``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.

Mrs Mandela, whose lawyer will cross-examine her husband today, claimed in papers filed to the court that the ``slight tension'' between the pair arose from Mrs Mandela's trial for the kidnapping of 14-year-old boy activist.

She was sentenced to six years in jail for kidnapping the boy killed by her bodyguard. The sentence was reduced to a fine.

However, Mr Mandela countered: ``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.''

He began proceedings to divorce Mrs Mandela, 61, once the darling of the anti-apartheid movement, after separating from her two years after he was freed from jail in 1990.

Mrs Mandela's counter-claim is that she should be advised of the full extent of Mr Mandela's assets and liabilities. In court papers filed last year, she said she wanted half of his assets, estimated by one newspaper at #6m.

The newspaper report also said she wanted him to pay off a #70,000 mortgage on her mansion in the black township of Soweto. Mrs Mandela almost lost the house, nicknamed Beverley Hills, because of mortgage arrears.

The Mandelas' marriage died during the final years of the struggle to end white rule that had kept them apart for so long.