Nelson Mandela’s personal items go on auction to fund memorial garden at his graveside

Johannesburg: Nearly 100 personal items belonging to former South African President Nelson Mandela are set to be auctioned in February to raise funds for a memorial garden at his graveside.

The items to be auctioned include the identity document provided to Mandela after his release from jail following 27 years as a political prisoner of the minority white government. Until then, such documents were not provided to the majority Black indigenous community.

Also put on the auction will be the ‘Madiba shirt’ he wore when meeting with Queen Elizabeth; the three-piece pinstripe suit that Mandela wore on the day his unprecedented journey from a prisoner to the president was ‘immortalised’ and a host of items in gold and silver gifted to him.

The auction by New York-based company Guernsey’s comes after Mandela’s daughter Makaziwe won a long legal battle that started in 2022 when the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) tried to stop the auction, which was scheduled in January that year.

SAHRA had argued in court that 29 of the items proposed to be auctioned, including the original key to his cell on Robben Island, were national heritage objects, therefore, they could not be sold as the personal property of his daughter. The agency had asked for the items to be returned to South Africa for appropriate safekeeping.

The items that SAHRA wanted to retain as heritage objects included the identity document, Mandela’s letters written from prison to his family and others, drawings which he sketched while in jail, and gifts from other heads of state, including then US President Barack Obama.

SAHRA felt that these items belonged to the democratic nation that Mandela was recognised for bringing about after leading negotiations with the white minority government and becoming the country’s first democratically elected president.

But in December 2023, the court ruled that SAHRA had not provided sufficient evidence to prove that the items in question qualified as heritage objects as provided for in the Heritage Act.

“To be sure, having been selected to conduct an auction on behalf of the Mandela family is indeed humbling,” Guernsey’s said on its website.

“When considering historical figures whose lives inspired the global population, the name Nelson Mandela will forever stand out.

“To imagine actually owning an artefact touched by this great leader is almost unthinkable. One therefore has to conclude that Guernsey's upcoming Nelson Mandela Auction will be nothing short of remarkable,” it added.

Confirming that almost 100 items would be offered at unreserved auction, Guernsey’s said the proceeds from the event will be used to build the Mandela Memorial Garden surrounding the former president’s final resting place at Qunu.

“For those who lived through Nelson Mandela's remarkable struggle for freedom, and for future generations, the garden will serve as an inspirational reminder of a man whose life impacted us all,” Guernsey said.