An earthquake has struck South Africa, killing one person and trapping some mine workers in a town south-west of Johannesburg, emergency workers say.

The US Geological Survey said the 5.3 magnitude tremor was near Orkney, a centre of gold-mining operations.

One person died after a wall in Orkney collapsed and emergency medical service ER24 said one mine in the area seemed to have been significantly impacted.

The earthquake was felt in neighbouring Botswana and Mozambique.

ER24 said the evacuation of miners had been ordered from shafts around Orkney but one mine had reported problems.

“Our crew is heading to the mine where miners are reported to trapped at 11 shafts,” ER24 spokeswoman Luyanda Majija said.

The BBC’s Milton Nkosi in Johannesburg says the area around the city has a history of mild tremors largely because of the nearby gold mines, which are some of the deepest in the world.

However geologists describe this tremor as a significant event, he says.

It rattled windows in high rise buildings in Johannesburg.

South Africa’s largest earthquake to date was recorded with a magnitude of 6.3 in the Western Cape town of Tulbagh in 1969.

In another development in South Africa, ex-wife of the country’s first black President Nelson Mandela has demanded his village home for her children, potentially triggering the first legal dispute since his death.

Winnie Madikiela-Mandela’s lawyers said she was asserting her “customary rights” by demanding the house.

Mandela’s estate was provisionally valued at 46m rand ($4.3m; £2.5m) following his death in December.

The thrice-married Mandela divorced Mrs Madikizela-Mandela in 1996.

The couple had two daughters, Zinzi and Zenani.

Mandela has one surviving child, Makaziwe, from his first marriage to the late Evelyn Mase.

He was married to Graca Machel, the wife of Mozambique’s late President Samora Machel, at the time of his death.

His large family – which includes grandchildren and great grandchildren – was hit by legal disputes over his wealth and burial site as he battled a recurring lung infection in the months leading to his death at the age of 95.

In his will, the ex-president said: “The Qunu property should be used by my family in perpetuity in order to preserve the unity of the Mandela family.”

The executor of the will, South Africa’s Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke, has not yet commented on the letter sent to him by Mvuzo Notyesi Incorporated, the legal firm representing Mrs Madikizela-Mandela.

In the letter, seen by the BBC, the lawyers said Mrs Madikizela-Mandela obtained the house in Qunu while he was in jail for fighting white minority rule.

“The view we hold is that the aforesaid property belongs to the generation of Mr Nelson Mandela and Mrs Winnie Madikizela-Mandela as their common and parental home,” it said.

“It is only in this home that the children and grandchildren of Mrs Madikizela-Mandela can conduct their own customs and tradition and the house cannot be given to the sole custody of an individual nor can it be generally given to the custody of any person other than the children of Mrs Madikizela-Mandela and/or her grandchildren,” it added.

The letter said this did not mean that Mandela’s other children would be denied access to the property.

“However, control and supervision of the property should be properly determined according to custom and tradition,” the lawyers said.

•Pieced together from separate BBC stories. Photo, also courtesy of BBC, shows rubbles after the earthquake that hit South Africa.

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