Museum a crying disgrace

DEDITOR’S VIEW URING their darkest days of struggle, Burmese democrats viewed South Africa’s world icon, Nelson Mandela, as a hero. Australian Aborigines were inspired by him.

Even during their years of Bush conservatism, Americans loved claiming Madiba as their own. And there was a time when even Indians were suggesting he be given a special name, along the lines of their iconic Mahatma – Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

It is therefore a crying disgrace that we, as South Africans, cannot even take the responsibility of properly maintaining and administering a museum named after him.

In Parliament last week, it was reported that the Nelson Mandela Museum in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape is not being managed in a manner befitting one of the world’s greatest figures of the 20th and 21st centuries.

We fervently hope those responsible for the upkeep of this museum will do the right thing – and ensure Mandela’s memory, through this building, is properly respected. Up to now, the signs have not been good.

A report on the museum by Parliament’s Arts and Culture portfolio committee painted a grim picture of an administration in chaos. It said the museum, which houses gifts and awards Madiba received during his presidency, was being crippled by a policy of appointing acting chief executives and “rampant failure” to adhere to labour laws.

It is simply not good enough to have a situation in which there is one manager for every staff member.

And it is ridiculous to have staff members who do not have proper job descriptions, and who are placed in jobs they are not qualified to do.

Madiba was the inspiration of millions of South Africans for generations. In many ways, he continues to inspire people today.

Even from his prison cell, he was the catalyst who inspired activists in Gauteng, KwaZuluNatal, the Eastern Cape, the Western Cape – and, in fact, all over the country and the world.

He motivated us to kick down the mental and physical barriers that divided so many of us for more than 300 years.

The least that can be done is to run a building named after him properly.