Anti-apartheid campaigner Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has appealed to South Africa?s Supreme Court in an effort to overturn a fraud conviction after a lower court rejected a previous attempt, officials said. ?It was lodged with the court yesterday,? Supreme Court of Appeals spokesman Henry Snyman said yesterday. Prosecutors would be given time to respond to the appeal, which two judges would study before making a decision, Snyman said. The ex-wife of former President Nelson Mandela, 67-year-old Madikizela-Mandela was convicted of fraud in 2003 over a bank loan scam.

Last July, the Pretoria High Court quashed her conviction on 25 counts of theft but upheld 43 counts of fraud. It also cut her initial sentence of five years in prison with one year suspended to 3-1/2 years, which was suspended for five years. Madikizela-Mandela had asked for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court against the fraud convictions ? a request turned down last month by a Pretoria High Court judge, who said there was no prospect of a different outcome.

But Madikizela-Mandela ignored that ruling, taking advantage of a law allowing appeals directly to the Supreme Court by defendants who do not believe they have had a fair hearing. Her lawyers say she was not motivated by personal gain when she signed letters seeking bank loans for bogus employees of the African National Congress (ANC) Women?s League she once headed.

Once a giant of South Africa?s anti-apartheid struggle, Madikizela-Mandela?s political influence has waned despite strong grassroots support. She resigned from parliament and abandoned her political career after her conviction. In 1991 she was convicted of kidnapping and involvement in an assault on a 14-year-old Soweto activist who was later found dead. She was sentenced to six years in jail, which was reduced to a fine on appeal.