Mandela’s good buy

In the early 2000s Makgoba got a phone call from Nelson Mandela. He had met Mandela in person after his release.

“He said to me, ‘I think you must come back home.’ ” “William,” Mandela added, “there’s something you need to get a special friend to buy for you.”

The item in question was a Chippendale desk and chair set. There were only two in the country and he, Mandela, was getting one of them. He urged Makgoba to acquire the other.

The professor went to the antique shop in Cape Town and decided on the spot he had to have it.

Chippendale furniture has been much sought after since the 18th century when

English cabinetmaker Thomas Chippendale started making furniture.

The set had a very expensive price tag and Makgoba scrambled to get a loan as he was leaving for Canada in three days. Today it’s in his study in his home village waiting for him to eventually retire.

We don’t know if Mandela was aware that Chippendale was the first style of furniture in England named after a cabinetmaker rather than a monarch. This would definitely have appealed to his belief in democracy.