One night in his former cell
TONIGHT, one very rich, and lucky – if you see it that way – person, will be spending the night in a concrete cell measuring 2.4m by 2.1m.
At the time of writing a bid was made of R4.1 million, and it could have gone higher.
The enclosure is Cell number 7 on an island west of Cape Town known in Dutch as Seal Island, but more memorably called Robben Island.
It is a former maximum security prison for political prisoners, and is now a popular heritage site.
Robben Island has the distinction of having three of its former inmates becoming the president of South Africa. One of them, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, spent 18 years incarcerated in Cell number 7.
Today, in case you were cut off from earth for the past few years and had no form of media available, is the 100th birthday of former president Mandela. A company called the CEO Sleepout Group auctioned off to the highest bidder the opportunity to spend the night in the famous cell.
This was thought to be a great opportunity, not only to walk in the footsteps of the icon, but to sleep in the same enclosure that he inhabited for 18 of the 27 years that he was detained for fighting against apartheid.
The group said that a portion of the money would be donated to a New York prison programme called The Prison-To-College Pipeline. The programme “aims to enrich prisoners’ lives by giving them a varsity-level education, and other tools to help make the transition back into society easier upon release”.
The Robben Island Museum authorities slammed the auction, deriding the “exploitation of Nelson Mandela’s legacy”.
The South African chapter of the CEO Sleepout Group has stated that a similar prisoner rehabilitation programme was being planned for this country.
To bolster this initiative, it is reported that Nelson Mandela’s daughter, Makaziwe Mandela, has been selected as a brand ambassador for The SleepOut Movement.
Many events and celebrations have been planned for today for the much-loved former statesman, who almost single-handedly brought South Africa under a bright international spotlight.
Radio stations and other media have been preparing and building up momentum for today. It is a worldwide phenomenon. Such is the love and respect the majority have for “Madiba”.
His lack of bitterness and vengeance for the “lost” 27 years was encapsulated in the following words he spoke when he left Victor Verster Prison on February 11, 1990: “As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.”
One of the mysteries that prevailed regarding his arrest on August 5, 1962, by the police just outside the Natal Midlands town of Howick, was who tipped off the authorities?
He was captured after eluding arrest for 17 months, but it came to an end on that fateful day when he posed as a chauffeur and was caught at what is now called The Nelson Mandela Capture Site.
In 1986, a Durban newspaper speculated about the informer.
In 2016, the answer was admitted to a British film director by the perpetrator, and just two weekends ago in a sister newspaper of the
it was confirmed. The plot was actually admitted to by an American diplomat based in Durban, who was said to also have been a spy for the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency).
It was actually revealed in 1963, during a party, in a little flat in Durban’s Glenwood.
The flat dweller, a famous, let’s say, notorious, former mercenary kept the secret for more than 40 years. A new book, written by his son, Chris Hoare, lays the whole incident bare.
To quote the words of the former diplomat, who died, aged 88, in 2016: It was “necessary because the Americans believed he was ‘completely under the control of the Soviet Union’.
“He could have incited a war in South Africa, the US would have had to get involved, grudgingly, and things could have gone to hell. We were teetering on the brink here, and it had to be stopped, which meant Mandela had to be stopped. And I put a stop to it.”
I have always wondered why, although he was born to a Xhosa chieftain’s family, and his upbringing was strictly according to Thembu customs, he was called by a European name?
In 1994, he answered that question: “No one in my family had ever attended school. On the first day of school my teacher, Miss Mdingane, gave each of us an English name.
“This was the custom among Africans in those days, and was undoubtedly due to the British bias of our education. That day, Miss Mdingane told me that my new name was Nelson. Why this particular name I have no idea.”
But that name, together with his middle name, which ironically is loosely translated as “troublemaker”, and his surname made him one of the most well-known people in history.
Pilloried by some, praised by others, there is no doubt that Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela made his mark in this country and on our consciousness. The past 100 years speak volumes.
RIP Madiba.