Two women come forward as heirs to Nelson Mandela - but don't want any money

Onica Mothoa is one of the women seeking recognition as Nelson Mandela's daughter (AP)

The families of two women seeking recognition as children of Nelson Mandela have contacted the executors of his will, but are not seeking money, a lawyer said on Monday.

Michael Katz, a lawyer for the executors, said he had received an attorney's letter citing the women's claims, and that he would discuss the matter with the executors, who revealed details of the will last week.

"They made the claim that they are descendants of Madiba," Katz said, using Mandela's clan name. "They indicated that this wasn't a monetary claim."

Allegations that Mandela had dalliances outside his marriage to his first wife, Evelyn Mase, have circulated for years. At the time, in the 1940s and 1950s, he was embarking on a legal career and becoming an organiser in the fight against white minority rule. Mandela, who became president in South Africa's first all-race elections in 1994, died on 5 December 5 at the age of 95 after a long illness.

One woman seeking recognition as Mandela's daughter, Onica Mothoa, said she does not care about his inheritance but wants to be acknowledged and has taken a DNA test in hopes of proving her claim, reported The Star, a South African newspaper.

The other woman, 63-year-old Mpho Pule, died from a stroke in 2009 after trying in vain to contact Mandela, the Mail and Guardian newspaper reported in 2010. Pule started trying to meet Mandela in 1998 after her grandmother told her that Mandela was her father, according to the newspaper.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation says Mandela had six children, and three died. It does not mention Mothoa and Pule in a genealogy. They were reportedly born during Mandela's stormy marriage to Mase, with whom he had four children. The couple divorced in 1958. Mase, who died in 2004, had accused Mandela of adultery.

AP