Mandela�s legacy lives on

Mpho Tlale | Friday November 7, 2014 13:56

 

Messages outside Mandela's Houghton House

When tourists visit Johannesburg, a trip to Mandela’s Houghton home is among the ‘top places’ to on the tour as recommended by Gauteng Tourism.

Tourists worldwide frequently visit the Houghton residence and take pictures while there.  Just in the front of the house there are messages written on pebble stones of all colours from white, red, blue, yellow and pink bidding Mandela farewell.

Another significant place that cannot go unmentioned included as Mandela’s legacy is the Liliesleaf Heritage Site in Rivonia. 

Before being declared a world heritage site Liliesleaf was a farm where senior ANC members met to how they would overthrow the apartheid government, but were arrested during a police raid in 1963.

The farm is widely regarded as the birthplace of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), and was the site of the Liliesleaf Farm police raid on July 11, 1963 that resulted in the Rivonia Treason Trials and the eventual incarceration of many senior ANC leaders, including Mandela (who was not arrested in the raid), Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada, Raymond Mhlaba and Walter Sisulu.

At the time Mandela was already in prison when the Lilliesleaf Farm police raid took place.

The outstanding factor about the farm is that despite the modifications to keep the structures alive, nothing has been tampered with.

The walls and floors have been preserved and retained in their original state. Some part of the 1963 furniture during the raid is still there.  The place also shows Mandela’s room that he used when he stayed there.

There are original statements that Mandela and his comrades Sisulu, Mbeki, Mhlaba, Kathranda and others made upon their arrests.

NOTE :

The South African Communist Party bought the farm in August 1961 to use as headquarters for their efforts against the apartheid regime. At the same time, the ANC was moving its emphasis away from passive resistance and beginning to focus more on an armed struggle.

The Goldreich family moved in to masquerade as the white owners of the property and Nelson Mandela himself lived here while posing as a cook-cum-gardener under the name of David Motsamayi. 

The trustees of the Liliesleaf Farm Museum want this landmark to rival Robben Island as an historical tourism attraction.

Its aim is to create a unique facility that will ensure the preservation of the history and legacy of the farm. 

The first phase of the Liliesleaf Farm Museum opened in 2008 and the full plan is to eventually have a boutique hotel, conference facilities, museum and learning centre on site. 

Currently a number of travelling exhibitions visit the facility, which also has plenty of educational projects under way.