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 to auction 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 in December 2023, after which the applicants sought leave to appeal.
SCA judgment on Nelson Mandela’s items
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.
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.
“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 judges 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.
Items without heritage status
The SCA noted that Makaziwe and former prison guard Christo Brand clearly explained how they obtained the items in their possession and why those items did not meet the legal standard for classification as heritage objects.
The court also ruled that SAHRA relied on material that could not be accepted as evidence, including the auction catalogue.
As a result, the judges said there was no proof that either Makaziwe or Brand viewed the items as having heritage status.
“The court reiterated that the owners’ constitutional property rights cannot be limited on the basis of speculation or unsupported assertions.
“In the result, the SCA concluded that SAHRA had failed to establish that any of the listed items were heritage objects as defined in the Act.”
The appeal was, therefore, dismissed with costs, effectively allowing the auction of Mandela’s personal items to proceed.
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