Auction of Mandela’s possessions suspended as South Africa fights to keep them

Former South African president Nelson Mandela, whose belongings were due to be auctioned online in February (Themba Hadebe/AP)

The planned auction of dozens of artefacts belonging to Nelson Mandela has been suspended pending a court application to completely halt it, the body that protects South Africa’s cultural heritage said on Tuesday.

The online auction had been scheduled by New York-based Guernsey’s auction house for February 24, in conjunction with Dr Makaziwe Mandela, the eldest daughter of the anti-apartheid leader and South Africa’s first democratically elected president who died in 2013.