By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
@ReutersPhoto.
The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has dismissed SA Heritage Resource Agency (SAHRA) bid to prevent the auction of former statesman Nelson Mandela’s personal items.
The SCA delivered its judgement on Thursday, 22 January.
SAHRA lodged an application for leave to appeal after the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria overturned an interdict sought by SAHRA against Madiba’s eldest daughter, Makaziwe Mandela.
In court papers, the SAHRA said it learned of the planned sale of the items in December 2021 and argued that 29 of the items had been declared heritage items and should not have been taken out of the country.
However, Makaziwe made the case that the items were not heritage objects, and the court dismissed SAHRA’s application for an interdict, saying there was little evidence to support the allegation the items were heritage objects as envisaged in the Heritage Act.
Auction house Guernsey’s had advertised the auction for 22 February 2024 after the end of a legal battle cleared the way for the objects to be sold.
The items up for auction include Madiba’s “personal and only identification book (ID)”, starting at $75,000 (roughly R1.4 million. A key to the Robben Island prison cell where Mandela was imprisoned could be one of the items.
According to Guernsey, other items for sale include a Madiba shirt, gifts from statesmen and institutions, his walking stick, his Bible, handwritten letters, and his hearing aids.
The auction house estimated that the 70 items have a collective value ranging between $2 million (R38 million) and $3 million (R56 million). Proceeds from the auction will go towards financing a memorial garden that honors Mandela.
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.
However, the appeal court disagreed.
SCA acting judge, Thandi Norman 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.
“The court emphasised that laws affecting criminal liability and property rights must be clear, constitutionally compliant, and not absurdly broad,” the summary of the judgment reads.
The SCA highlighted that the classifications used by SAHRA were “too wide” and unclear to be applied in the way the agency proposed.
The court found that this approach created uncertainty and could not be enforced properly.
The judge also ruled that SAHRA did not submit admissible evidence to prove that each item had the required cultural importance or special value under the law.
The appeal was, therefore, dismissed with costs, effectively allowing the auction of Mandela’s personal items to proceed.
Mandela died in 2013 at the age of 95. He led the African National Congress in its struggle against apartheid – a system of legally enforced racism – and spent 27 years in prison.