By Agencies
South Africa’s government has turned to the country’s Constitutional Court in a renewed bid to stop the auction in the United States of items once belonging to Nelson Mandela.
The four-year legal battle involves 29 objects, including Mandela’s identity card, shirts, writings and a key to his prison cell on Robben Island, where he spent 18 of his 27 years in jail.
The country’s heritage agency, SAHRA, and the culture ministry argue the items are part of South Africa’s national heritage and were exported without permission.
The auction was first announced in 2021 by New York-based Guernsey’s, but was suspended after SAHRA challenged the sale. South African courts later cleared the auction, before the government renewed its legal efforts to stop it.
Mandela’s eldest daughter, Makaziwe, authorised the sale to raise funds for a memorial garden near her father’s grave in Qunu.
Mandela became South Africa’s first democratic president in 1994 and died in 2013, aged 95.
ENTEBBE, Uganda, 27 October 2026 -/African Media Agency(AMA)/ - When nine-year-old James Ssemambo developed severe…
International Space Station’s use of tabular AI and expanded partnerships demonstrate the art of the…
UNICEF says a conditional deal could lower the RTS,S malaria vaccine price by about 40%…
An African Development Bank report points to faster growth while warning that Zambia still faces…
A partnership backed by a $1 million grant is mapping skills demand and planning local…
The financing is designed to cushion energy costs while supporting Botswana’s private-sector and jobs reforms.