A South African court has ruled that personal items belonging to Nelson Mandela may be sold and exported after his eldest daughter won a legal battle against the country’s heritage authority.
The artefacts include a prison cell key from Robben Island, where Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in jail, a pair of Aviator sunglasses, and one of his iconic floral shirts. Other items include a copy of South Africa’s 1996 Constitution signed by Mandela, a charcoal drawing, an identity card, a tennis racquet he used while imprisoned, and gifts from world leaders such as former US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle.
The 70 items are owned by Mandela’s daughter, Makaziwe Mandela, and Christo Brand, a former Robben Island prison warden who served during Mandela’s incarceration. They were set to be exported to the United States for auction.
The South African Heritage Resources Agency (Sahra) attempted to block the sale, arguing that the objects formed part of the nation’s heritage and were therefore protected from export under the National Heritage Resources Act. Sahra said it became aware of the proposed auction in late 2021 after a British newspaper reported that Mandela’s prison key alone could fetch more than £1m.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court of Appeal said Sahra had interpreted the law too broadly and failed to adequately justify why the items should be classified as protected heritage objects. The court noted that while Makaziwe Mandela and Brand had clearly explained why the items were private property, the agency had not sufficiently set out the legal grounds for its objections.
Makaziwe Mandela said she planned to use proceeds from the sale to build a memorial garden at her father’s grave in Qunu, in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province. Welcoming the judgment, she criticised the heritage authority for assuming it understood Mandela’s wishes better than his family.
She said no final decision had yet been made on whether the auction would proceed.
The ruling has divided opinion, with some arguing that items linked to Mandela should remain in South Africa for future generations, while others believe his family has the right to decide how the objects are handled.
Nelson Mandela died in 2013 at the age of 95. He led the African National Congress in the struggle against apartheid, was released from prison in 1990, became South Africa’s first democratically elected president in 1994, and shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 with FW de Klerk.
