An attendant shows a commemorative medal of late president Nelson Mandela during an auction in Johannesburg on 15 July 2014. Picture: AFP / Marco Longari The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has dismissed an appeal seeking to prevent Makaziwe Mandela, the eldest daughter of former president Nelson Mandela, from proceeding with the auction of her late father’s personal belongings. The SCA judgment was delivered on Thursday, 22 January.
The South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA), along with Robben Island Museum and the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, had been engaged in a legal battle with Makaziwe in an effort to stop the sale of 29 items linked to the former president. Among the items listed for auction are the keys to Mandela’s Robben Island prison cell, his hearing aid, his identity document, and a copy of the 1996 constitution signed by him before it was enacted into law. Although Makaziwe had planned toauction the items, the applicants launched a court challenge in March 2022 at the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria.
The high court dismissed the interdict application inDecember 2023, after which the applicants soughtleave to appeal. SAHRA argued before the SCA that the items should be treated as part of the country’s national heritage and protected under the National Heritage Resources Act. The agency argued that objects linked to Mandela automatically qualified for special protection and could not be removed or sold without its approval through a two-stage permitting process. It ruled that the law does not support SAHRA’s view and found no legal basis for requiring owners to follow a two-step approval process before dealing with such items.
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