A decade on from the passing of anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela, South African broadcaster eNCA has visited the home, where he spent his sunset years and died, to find that it has been abandoned and has fallen into disrepair.
Pop star Michael Jackson, Oprah Winfrey and former US first lady Michelle Obama were among the many high-profile guests former President Mandela hosted at the house, located in the affluent Johannesburg suburb of Houghton.
A video shared by eNCA on Friday showed parts of the derelict home, including an overgrown garden and a dusty ceiling in the bedroom where Mandela died.
The home was most recently occupied by some of Mandela’s grandchildren, but they moved out after the city disconnected power due to the failure by Mandela’s trust to pay bills, eNCA reported.
“I moved out because we were having issues with the family trust. We kept on having to ask the trustees to pay the water and electricity bills,” Mandela’s grandson Mbuso Mandela, who moved out around 2019, told eNCA.
Some South Africans have expressed heartbreak on social media, calling on Mandela’s family and the government to honour and preserve the legacy of the iconic statesman by repairing his former home.
It is a stark contrast from the Johannesburg home Mandela first lived in after his prison release, which was last year converted into a luxury boutique hotel named Sanctuary Madiba.