Plans afoot to open gravesite to the public
NELSON Mandela’s gravesite will be open to the public — it is just a matter of when.
For the first time, the Mandela family have confirmed that plans are afoot to make the site accessible to visitors who wish to pay their respects at his final resting place.
Two grandchildren, who spoke exclusively to the Sunday Times, said discussions involving the family, the ANC and the government were being held about the arrangements.
The gravesite— on a hill near the eastern boundary of Mandela’s Qunu homestead in the Eastern Cape — has been closely guarded by the family thus far.
Ndileka Mandela, Mandela’s oldest grandchild, said: “It would be selfish of the family to say that we’ll close it to the public, because Madiba was a people’s person.
“It is something that will happen in the future. [We can’t] say that it will just be something for the family.
“At some point we will open it to the general public.”
Another Mandela grandchild, Ndaba Mandela, confirmed that the plan was to eventually give South Africans access to the site where the country’s first democratically elected president was buried.
“It’s going to take some time for us to open it to the public,” he said.
The two said it would not happen immediately, because there were processes to be followed.
Mandla Mandela, chief of Mvezo village — Madiba’s birthplace — would only confirm that discussions were taking place.
“I don’t think this is a family issue only. There has to be a dialogue,” he said, adding that the ANC and various arms of government would be consulted.
The confirmation by the family comes a year after revelations that the National Heritage Council was considering applying for various spots with links to Mandela to be declared world heritage sites.
❛ It would be selfish of the family to say that we’ll close it to the public
Greg Straw, who designed the gravesite and the memorial gardens leading up to it, has previously told the Sunday Times that his concept was built on the basis that the place would eventually be open to the public — and that the family was open to the idea.
A spokesman for the heritage council, Danny Goulkan, said this week that nine historic “Nelson Mandela legacy sites” had been chosen for possible inclusion as Unesco world heritage sites.
The gravesite is not on the list, but Goulkan did not rule out the possibility of it being added at a later stage.
So far, the council has asked for heritage status for the Wes- leyan Church in Bloemfontein, where the first meeting of the South African Native Congress — which would become the ANC — was held.
Other sites are the University of Fort Hare in the Eastern Cape, the Union Buildings in Pretoria, Walter Sisulu Square in Kliptown, Soweto, and Liliesleaf farm, in northern Johannesburg, where many of the Rivonia triallists were arrested.
It would take about three years, said Goulkan, for the sites to gain heritage status.