Ismail Ayob

Ismail Mahomed Ayob was born on the 3 January 1942 to Mahomed and Julekha Ayob in Mafeking, then a small town in the far northern Cape province of South Africa. He attended the Methodist Coloured School until the age of 14 when his schooling came to an end. There was no school open to him being a person of colour. He was sent to Pretoria to continue his schooling at the Pretoria Indian Boys High School. The Universities were closed to non whites in the year he completed his high school studies in 1959. He received a passport after a long struggle and moved to London where he attended London University's prestigious London School of Economics where he read for the LL.B degree. He qualified as a Barrister and returned to South Africa to start practice as an attorney. The bulk of his practice for the first twenty years was in human rights acting for opponents of the Apartheid government. During a long and illustrious career, primarily served under the arduous years of Apartheid, he defended and represented many South African political prisoners. Motivated by idealism and a sense of justice, his dream was realised when a new, vibrant democracy was born on the 27 April 1994. He then was elected as the first chairperson of the Gauteng Law Society and was re-elected each year for five successive years. During this time he was also elected as a council member of the Law Society of the Transvaal. Ismail Ayob easily adapted and integrated into a new South African society. He enjoys a high reputation for his honour and integrity. He currently resides and practices law as an Attorney in private practice in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is married to Zamila Ayob and they have one son, Zayd Ismail Ayob.

He is currently (January 2006) under indictment for fraud relating to what is known as "the Madiba Art scam" where himself and Nelson Mandela (Madiba) alledgedly benefited from art fraudulently signed by Mandela as his own and sold by Ayob.

Ayob is accused of misleading people by pretending that art works that were signed by Mandela and then sold for thousands of rand, were Mandela's own work. It is also alleged that Ayob stole about R30m from the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Mandela's children, Makaziwe, Zenani and the late Makgatho Mandela, are shareholders in Magnifique Investment and Holding, reportedly registered in 2000 by Ayob, who is acting as director. Other shareholders are reportedly The Nelson Mandela Trust and Nelson Mandela Children's Fund. The company apparently received millions of rand to market Madiba Art.

The Mandela Children's Fund denied all these allegations by Ayob.