The news surrounding Nelson Mandela’s house on Vilakazi Street, Orlando West, Soweto, is disturbing, to say the very least.
Mandela’s house is a prominent cultural and tourist attraction, having been declared a national monument in 1999. He started living in there from 1946 with his first wife, Evelyn Ntoko Mase. Eleven years later after divorcing her, he lived there with his second wife, Nomzamo Winnie Madikizela.
After his 27 years’ imprisonment on Robben Island, he returned to the same house in 1990.
After becoming the first black president of a democratic South Africa in 1994, Mandela founded the Soweto Heritage Trust and later left the house – which had been turned into a museum – to the Soweto Heritage Company.
Recent media reports about the imminent liquidation of the world-famous house leave a bitter taste in the mouth. Reports say the contents of the house – various memorabilia, artworks, awards and honorary doctorates conferred on Mandela and his family, as well as photographs of the family dating back to the 1950s – are to be sold off to settle the debts it had incurred.
However, we find comfort following a media release by the appointed liquidators as to the status of the house. Unable to effectively maintain and promote the house, and due to the lack of an active board of directors, the liquidators say the company became dysfunctional and was wound up in 2016. The company, they said, was in a sound financial position at the time that it was wound up, and that position continues to endure.
According to the joint liquidators, Allan Pellow and Michael Moloto, as the company has not experienced any liquidity issues, neither the house nor its contents will be sold to defray any expenses or costs that have, or will be, incurred in the running thereof.
In the interim, Messrs Pellow and Moloto have introduced streamlined financial processes and internal controls to ensure that the Mandela house remains in good financial standing.
The primary task of the liquidators, they say, is to facilitate and process a transfer of the house to a suitable entity that will honour the original intentions of the former statesman.
We cannot overemphasise the importance of keeping the legacy of that house for posterity.
The Star