South Africa protests Nelson Mandela's cell key auction
South Africa has protested the planned auction of the prison cell key of Nelson Mandela, the first black president of the republic at the Cape of Good Hope.
"This key belongs to the citizens of South Africa," South African Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa said in a statement published on Friday.
This came from the minister in response to media reports that an American auction house had obtained the key from a former guard of Mandela, indicating that this house should explain how it obtained it.
Mandela - who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in promoting reconciliation in South Africa after the abolition of apartheid - stayed for 18 years in Robben Island prison off Cape Town, in addition to another period outside this prison
. Mandela was released only on February 11, 1990, after serving 27 years in prison.
Robben Island is now considered a heritage site after being inscribed on the World Heritage List, and is an important symbol of the fight against oppression in the apartheid era.
"The master key is still there - we don't know if it has been copied," the culture minister told South African television station ENCAN.
He added that it was not yet clear whether other items in addition to the key had made it to the auction house.
We will fight to get it back, said Mithitwa.
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Nelson Mandela