Outcry over auction of a night in Mandela’s cell

A CHARITY that planned to auction a night in Nelson Mandela’s prison cell is engaged in a bitter dispute with the museum that maintains the historic site.

The annual CEO Sleepout initiative, which raises money for various charities, said the highest bidder would spend a night in Mandela’s cell on Robben Island, where he spent much of his 27-year incarceration.

South Africa’s first democratically elected president was kept on the prison island, off the coast of Cape Town, along with other antiapartheid political prisoners.

Curators at the Robben Island museum denied having any prior knowledge of the proposed sleepover in Mandela’s cell until they learnt about it through the media.

“We strongly condemn this auction,” Morongoa Ramaboa, a spokeswoman for Robben Island Museum, told AFP. “We are saddened that Nelson Mandela’s legacy is being exploited in this way. As a World Heritage Site, we would under no circumstances consider auctioning Madiba’s cell. The preservation of our heritage is non negotiable.”

But the CEO Sleepout Trust insisted that the Robben Island event had been agreed upon and would go ahead at a later date.

The online auction, which attracted bids of up to $300,000 (£225,000), has been removed from the CEO Sleepout website.