Winnie Madikizela-Mandela leaves court on Monday after a South African judge scrapped a five-year jail sentence against her. (AFP)

Pretoria, July 5 (Reuters): South African anti-apartheid icon Winnie Madikizela-Mandela avoided going to jail today when a court reduced her prison sentence for fraud to a suspended sentence, but she vowed to appeal again.

Nelson Mandela’s former wife, 67, was sentenced to jail last year over a bank loan scam, but freed on bail pending an appeal.

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 then headed.

She appeared calm at today’s hearing at the Pretoria High Court, which quashed her conviction on 25 counts of theft but upheld 43 counts of fraud. It cut her initial sentence of five years with one suspended to three-and-a-half years, suspended for five.

Scores of students outside the court cheered the decision but Madikizela-Mandela emerged defiant from the court wearing a gold and black outfit and matching head dress, and vowed to appeal against her conviction despite the reduced sentence.

“I have given instructions to my lawyers to appeal against a judgement which is completely wrong, so the matter will be taken from there,” was all she said over the sound of supporters singing anti-apartheid struggle songs. The former “Mother of the Nation” was never expected to serve long behind bars. The judge who first sentenced her expected her to serve only eight months in jail.

Her co-accused, broker Addy Moolman, had all 25 theft convictions against him quashed, but 58 counts of fraud were upheld, and his effective five-year jail sentence was cut by just a year.