It was in the evening of December 23 2021, trapped in Covid-19 lockdown when the news flashed, “Key that locked up Nelson Mandela is set to sell for more £1m”. That part really turned me into a megalomaniac. I found myself suffering delusions of power I’d never had. But at that point the delusion was important as there were only five days to the time the key would be sold. The date of the hammer was December 28 2021.
On February 22, this year Madiba’s ID will be up for sale. My eldest brother, who became the chief justice of Lesotho, liked to tell stories, fairy tales being his speciality. Repetition in storytelling creates meaning and appreciation of tectonic shifts. Storytelling by the fire at night is the optimal time, provided such does not relate to witchcraft and flying on brooms because that would play out as a nightmare if one fell sleep that night. But the choice of which story to tell was always with the storyteller. At this my brother was an expert, especially when tired — he would decide on one that will send your nerves to the sanatorium.
The special story was about the plague of hunger that taught people to create granaries for rainy days. King Moshoeshoe was credited for leading the granary system, and on the basis of that and many other leadership qualities, he built a nation whose substantial number were refugees escaping wars and pestilence. In this fairy-tale the enemy to the granary was the locust. The design of the granary had to leave an opening for scooping the sorghum grain. But it was through this very design that the locust would have free rein. So the fairy-tale will start with the building of the granary and the tireless locust.
The tragic monotony has again started. First it was the key, then the unkept Houghton house and now the ID with many other artefacts and all in between.
Once upon a time King Shaka asked his army general, Mbopha, about the strength of his army. Mbopha said, your majesty, they are the number of strands of hair on a buffalo skin. The king pressed for a number and Mbopha said they are equivalent to the grains of sand on the beach. His Majesty was still not satisfied and pressed for a number. Mbopha the general said they are the number of stars in the sky. Now the number of locusts were as many as Mbopha’s conception of massive numbers. So the tale as I pointed out started with the construction of a massive granary to address the rainy days. But through the opening meant for good and in perpetuity the locusts would come in and pick one and only one grain and escape with it. In a moment, a locust descended into the granary, picked one and only one grain of sorghum and left. In a moment, a locust descended into the granary, picked one and only one grain and left. In a moment, a locust descended into the granary and picked one and only one grain of sorghum and left world without end.
Of course, each time this fairy tale was on the menu, my sister and I would cry in frustration from the monotony of this fairy-tale. The story of Oedipus in Sophocles, which ends with “all ills that there are names for, all are here” was what one we wished for, or one of Zeus the god of rain. Masilo and Masilonyane would be better or that of the cannibal who tricked a young girl into a bag and how she escaped. But always when we eagerly awaited these shorter tales, he would go for the monotonous one. The tragic monotony has again started. First it was the key, then the unkept Houghton House and now the ID with many other artefacts and all in between. Is this a reflection of our own Oedipus, where “all ills that there are names for, all are here”?
Back to Madiba’s prison key and my megalomania. As this message flashed, I dropped the consultancy report I was finalising and got on to my phone. First stop was to the CEO, Sello Hatang, who was in Maputo and was not aware of the sale. Then I made the call to former directors-general colleague Ntate Mavuso Msimang and Rev Frank Chikane, with whom we served as heads of administration, and they offered wise advice to consult Geoff Budlender.
On that advice I was then on the phone with Budlender, an exchange that went as follows: “[23/12/2021, 21:10] palilj01: Hi Geoff evening this is Pali. How does this get stopped?
[23/12/2021, 22:26] Geoff Budlender: Hi Pali, this is disgusting. Need to look at the heritage legislation. Do you have access to the National Heritage Council? Any prospect of activating the minister? One of the legal questions is how he came to “own” this key.
[23/12/2021, 22:34] palilj01: Hi Geoff I sent the minister a message and the DG — The DG responded and they are following up. I also raised the alarm with Sello Hatang the CEO of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, who is taking the matter up with the minister. I do not know the legislation or the policy. I will try and acquaint myself with it. But the arts and culture must scan for all these memories curate and preserve them. Thanks for coming through.
[23/12/2021, 22:37] Geoff Budlender: I’ll also have a look at the legislation — I didn’t mean you must do that!
[23/12/2021, 22:42] palilj01: Yes I know, but I am so furious this spurs me to looking into it.
[23/12/2021, 22:58] Geoff Budlender: Looks like the critical body is the SA Heritage Resources Agency, established by the National Heritage Resources Act. The key should really be expropriated — with nil compensation. SAHRA has extraterritorial functions by inter-governmental agreement. Minister (who has power to expropriate) does not seem to have extraterritorial power.
[23/12/2021, 23:00] palilj01: Thank you very much for these correct aspects of law. I just even did not know where to start anyway. This has enlightened me greatly.
I then proceeded to then arts and culture minister Nathi Mthethwa and his director-general Vusi Mkhize in the exchange below:
[23/12/2021, 21:05] palilj01: Khabasela good day — this is totally unacceptable. It has to be fought tooth and nail.
[23/12/2021, 22:04] Vusimuzi Mkhize: Good evening Prof. thank you for this alert. I am following it up.
[23/12/2021, 22:05] palilj01: Thank you Khabasela this should spur the country into action — Lumumba’s tooth no
[23/12/2021, 23:45] palilj01: Kabasela I raised the matter with Geoff Budlender and here is his informed legal position.
[23/12/2021, 21:25] palilj01: Minister, evening, this has to be interdicted urgently and the key has to be immediately confiscated from who’s hands it is in for the state.
[24/12/2021, 06:06] Nathi Mthethwa: Thanks my brother I’ve just seen it and asked my DG to take action immediately.
[23/12/2021, 21:15] palilj01: How does this interdicted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation [23/12/2021, 23:36] palilj01: Rev I spoke to Geoff Budlender and he acted with lightening speed.
[24/12/2021, 17:00] Frank Chikane: Thanks for raising an alarm about this matter. From your report via other WHATTSAPP Group the matter seems to be in good hands. I listened to the minister for arts & culture on TV this afternoon.
[24/12/2021, 17:29] palilj01: Thanks a lot reverend. So, the very next day on the 24th the sale of the Madiba’s prison key, a national heritage was stopped from being auctioned.
On Dec 25, 2021, Al Jazeera had the following headline: Cabinet minister demands cancellation of US auction of a key to the prison cell in Cape Town where Mandela was jailed.
So the tale of the locust of has just once more reared its head. But this time with legal backing, according to the link below January 18 2024 — a court ruling has paved the way for the sale of about 100 of Madiba’s personal items. The items will be sold online by an international agency.
This, however, begs the deeper questions captured in the immediate aftermath of Madiba’s demise captured in the Voice of America — “SA Vendors Hawk Mandela-themed Merchandise” (voanews.com) on December 14 2013: in the days that have followed Mandela’s death, makeshift memorial sites have popped up all over.
While vendors selling merchandise is quite understandable and serve the nation to mark remembrance, when authentic items of our iconic hero get auctioned, the nation has to surely engage, as the foundation’s CEO argues correctly that this matter is far from settled.
SA needs to stop playing games with the legacy of struggle, solidarity and sustainable societies. Rather take a serious look at what Madiba as a global symbol of struggle means to us. I recall crossing into Burkina Faso with my deputy in 2007. His ordinary passport qualified for entry into Burkina Faso just as my diplomatic passport did. At the sight of the coat of arms, the immigration officer, who had insisted on a visa, went into a trance and a war song, “Afrique de Sud, Bafana Bafana, Mandela Mandela”, and the entry stamp into the land of the upright people without restraint landed in his passport. Mandela was his visa. SA has again ridden on Madiba’s firm leadership position with the people of Palestine and by so doing invoked Madiba’s legacy, and the world that had dismissed us for our latter-day indiscretions have again risen to say Madiba would never have forsaken them.
But let us see the despicable contrast. How ugly can the scene at his Houghton house, his place of last breath, be and how ugly and ironic can the sale of his personal items for shekels be? The contrast in our national psyche is inconsistent with Madiba’s legacy at each turn. We should take a leaf from the title, Ethical Thought of Archbishop Desmond Tutu: Ubuntu and Tutu’s Moral Modeling as Transformation and Renewal, where Shiela Otieno “explores the relevance and the cultural influence of sagacity as pertains to the function of moral modelling in African social ethics. Through the lens of South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s life as a moral exemplar, it highlights key formative moments that could be marked as steps towards a personal moral transformation that stands to influence collective moral formation for contemporary African people. Tracing moments in the archbishop’s life that are morally striking to the world as determinative towards moral revolution on the continent, this chapter examines how Archbishop Tutu’s culturally endowed role as ‘sage’ acts as a Mold for the moralscape, thereby triggering and inspiring the morality of the ubuntu-governed society.”
This is the coherence needed for having SA as a deserved winning nation envisaged by struggle, solidarity and skills for sustainable societies.
Dr Pali Lehohla is a Professor of Practice at the University of Johannesburg, a research associate at Oxford University, a board member of Institute for Economic Justice at Wits and a distinguished Alumni of the University of Ghana. He is the former statistician-general of SA.
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