South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed a plea on Thursday that sought to stop Nelson Mandela’s eldest daughter, Makaziwe, and a former prison warden, from auctioning some of the late icon’s artifacts.

The South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA), the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture and the Robben Island Museum approached a high court in Pretoria in 2022 to stop Makaziwe and others from auctioning the artefacts.

They said the items were a national heritage and should not be sold but preserved for future generations.

Several dozen items belonging to the former South African leader had been lined up for sale, including his personal identity document upon release from prison in 1990, his famous beige floral Madiba shirts, personal letters, signed books, gifts from former heads of state and institutions and a key to Mandela’s Robben Islands cell, among others.

Appeal dismissed with costs

In December 2023, the Pretoria high court dismissed the application seeking to halt the sale, prompting SAHRA and others to appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal.

“The appeal is dismissed with costs, including those of two counsels where so employed,” the Supreme Court said Thursday.

Mandela’s former prison warden at Robben Island, where he was incarcerated for more than two decades, Christo Brand, has a broken key that is said to be Mandela’s former prison cell.

Brand, who later became Mandela’s friend, has a copy of the 1996 constitution signed by Mandela before the final version was formally executed.

Anti-apartheid crusader

Born on July 18, 1918, in the Eastern Cape, Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC) party in 1944 and helped establish its Youth League.

He was a vocal anti-apartheid activist before his arrest and imprisonment. He spent 27 years in prison and became the first democratically elected Black president of South Africa in 1994, serving until 1999.

He died on December 5, 2013, in Johannesburg following a long battle with a lung infection.