Rare Mandela mementos to go under the hammer

A collection of Nelson Mandela’s personal items, including his photograph with boxing legend Muhammad Ali, will go under the hammer in South Africa next week, in a rare auction of the peace icon’s memorabilia.

The assortment of 79 signed mementos at Wednesday’s auction date from 1964 to 2010.

The collection includes the historic speech he delivered from the dock in 1964 during the Rivonia Trial that sent him to prison, and his picture with ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela entering a packed stadium in Soweto to address supporters after his release from jail in 1990.

The auctioneers expect to raise at least 800,000 rand (80,000 dollars/59,000 euros) from the auction.

Stefo Tufegdzic from the auction house Stephan Welz & Co told AFP that the items were collected over a 14-year period from various actions.

“This is probably the biggest auction of Mandela momentos... all these documents bear the signature of the anti-apartheid hero,” he said.

Other items are co-signed by international celebrities.

Some unusual keepsakes in the auction are a 1988 concert pass for his 70th birthday tribute at London’s Wembley Stadium and a bottle of wine.

The frail 95-year-old had become South Africa’s first black president in 1994, after the fall of the whites-only apartheid regime.

Mandela is currently battling ill health under intensive care at his home, after spending almost three months in hospital receiving treatment for a recurring respiratory infection.

President Jacob Zuma on Monday said the revered leader was in a “stable but critical condition” after paying him a visit at his Johannesburg home.