Nelson Mandela’s Houghton home in Johannesburg is now an abandoned eyesore, according to the Sunday Times.
Until last year the house was occupied by Mandela’s grandchildren, Ndaba, Mbuso and Andile, sons of the late Makgatho Mandela. Makgatho was Madiba’s son by his first wife, Evelyn.
Mandela’s will states that Makgatho and his children were to have use of the house “in perpetuity”.
The electric gate is broken, portions of the roof fascia are missing or collapsing, the tennis court is crumbling and the tiled roof of an outbuilding is sagging. The pavement garden – where well-wishers placed stones painted with messages of hope shortly before Mandela’s death – is now overgrown and littered with rubbish.
Ndaba said they moved out after the Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (NRM) Family Trust stopped paying the utility bills.
The house is vested in his estate under the control of the executors, former Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke, Eastern Cape Judge President Mr Justice Themba Sangoni, and the late Advocate George Bizos SC.
However, the estate has yet to effect transfer of the house to the trust.
Ndaba has accused Moseneke and Advocate Wim Trengove SC of displacing him and his brothers by failing to pay the municipal bills. Moseneke and Trengove are trustees of Mandela’s trust.
Moseneke and Trengove dismissed the allegations, saying the trust stopped paying the bills after they suddenly more than tripled to about R50 000 a month. Ndaba said the bills had shot up due to a leak, which was repaired at his cost.
Trengove said although the trust had no legal responsibility to do so, it had contributed towards the house’s upkeep and municipal bills because the family “implored the trust to help. [That help] has, since March 2017, come to R1.4m.”