Johannesburg - A torch Nelson Mandela carried at a ceremony to symbolise the end of apartheid in 1994 is to go on auction in Boston, in the US, next Wednesday and Thursday, RR Auction announced on Monday.
On February 3, 1994 Mandela along with other political prisoners gathered at the gates of Victor Verster Prison and were presented with the “Mandela’s Freedom Torch”. The torch was lit to symbolise the end of apartheid.
“It was such an apocalyptic moment seeing Mandela holding up that flame of freedom.
“I knew then on top of all deep reflections in a lonely prison cell had revealed to me that in my personal capacity I had a responsibility to go on carrying that flame of freedom for as long as I lived and others too would have felt the same,” Cope leader and former political prisoner Mosiuoa Lekota said.
“May all of us who shared that experience with Madiba that day continue to work for the realisation of his vision and the attainment of the unity he so fervently desired,” Lekota added.
RR Auction executive vice-president Bobby Livingston said: “This was the only torch used by Mandela on this historic occasion.”
The torch is made of metal, with the flame holder punctured in a rudimentary pattern to allow the flame to breathe, while the charred remnants of the wick remain inside.
“To have had the opportunity to hold the flame of freedom that Mandela held aloft outside Victor Verster Prison in 1994 is to have felt a rare kind of warmth and experienced a unique light of illuminating the very depth of my soul,” Lekota said.
The Star