South Africa has returned to its Constitutional Court in a renewed attempt to stop the auction in the United States of 29 personal items once belonging to Nelson Mandela, escalating a four-year legal battle over whether the memorabilia should be treated as private property or protected national heritage.
The South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) and the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture argue that the objects form part of South Africa’s national heritage and were exported without the required permission.
The latest legal challenge follows earlier rulings by South African courts that cleared the way for the auction.
The collection includes Mandela’s identity card, shirts, writings, hearing aids, glasses and a key to his prison cell on Robben Island, where he spent 18 of his 27 years in prison.
The items therefore span some of the most significant periods of Mandela’s life, from his imprisonment under apartheid to his emergence as South Africa’s first democratically elected president.
