JOHANNESBURG: For rich corporate executives, fine food, expensive wine and five-star hotels come as standard.
But one discerning top boss with a spare $300,000 (€260,000) will give up creature comforts for a night in the cramped prison cell that was Nelson Mandela’s home for 18 years.
That is according to organizers of the annual CEO sleepout, an initiative which raises money for various charities.
South Africa’s first democratic, black president was kept on South Africa’s Robben Island prison off Cape Town for much of his 27-year incarceration.
A night in his iconic 8-foot by 7-foot (2.4 meters by 2.1 meters) concrete cell will now be auctioned for charity to mark the centenary of prisoner number 46664’s birthday.
“The suggestion was to auction the cell to raise money to fund the Prison-to-College Pipeline... educating incarcerated people in South Africa,” said Liane McGowan, spokeswoman for the CEO SleepOut South Africa adding that details of when the one night only fundraiser will take place, had not been finalized.
Online bidding started at $250,000 (€215,000) and has already attracted three bids, reaching $300,000 with the sale set to close on July 16.
The winner will spend one night in Mandela’s cell number seven, while up to 66 other bidders will sleep elsewhere in the island prison that is now a museum and World Heritage site.
The Museum’s management could not be reached for comment. The Nelson Mandela foundation said it was not a part of the initiative and could not be responsible for the usage of Mandela’s cell.
Sixty-seven was chosen as Mandela dedicated 67 years of his life to the fight against the racist apartheid system that governed South Africa until Mandela won the first democratic non-racial elections in 1994.
The initiative is part of the CEO SleepOut movement which auctions nights in unusual locations to wealthy business leaders to raise money for charitable causes.
The Robben Island event will raise funds for the Prison-to-College Pipeline (P2P), a scheme that began in New York to help prisoners access university-level education. The P2P initiative will be launched in South Africa on 18 July, Mandela’s birthday.
A similar event will be held on July 11 at the Liliesleaf Farm in northern Johannesburg which was used as a safe-house by several anti-apartheid fighters including Mandela.
The base was raided by apartheid security forces in 1963 and several anti-regime leaders faced the courts at the so-called “Rivonia Trial” which resulted in Mandela being jailed for life.
Executives have previously spent the night under the Mandela Bridge in central Johannesburg to raise awareness of poverty and homelessness.
The event was criticized online and in the media by some who accused it of mocking those forced to sleep rough.
A night in Nelson Mandela’s prison cell — yours for $300k
A night in Nelson Mandela’s prison cell — yours for $300k
- One discerning top boss with a spare $300,000 will give up creature comforts for a night in the cramped prison cell that was Nelson Mandela’s home for 18 years
- South Africa’s first democratic black president was kept on South Africa’s Robben Island prison off Cape Town for much of his 27-year incarceration
Arts festival’s decision to exclude Palestinian author spurs boycott
- A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival
SYDENY: A top Australian arts festival has seen the withdrawal of dozens of writers in a backlash against its decision to bar an Australian Palestinian author after the Bondi Beach mass shooting, as moves to curb antisemitism spur free speech concerns.
The shooting which killed 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Dec. 14 sparked nationwide calls to tackle antisemitism. Police say the alleged gunmen were inspired by Daesh.
The Adelaide Festival board said last Thursday it would disinvite Randa Abdel-Fattah from February’s Writers Week in the state of South Australia because “it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi.”
FASTFACTS
• Abdel-Fattah responded, saying it was ‘a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship.’
• Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival.
Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
Among the boycotting authors, Kathy Lette wrote on social media the decision to bar Abdel-Fattah “sends a divisive and plainly discriminatory message that platforming Australian Palestinians is ‘culturally insensitive.'”
The Adelaide Festival said in a statement on Monday that three board members and the chairperson had resigned. The festival’s executive director, Julian Hobba, said the arts body was “navigating a complex moment.”
a complex and unprecedented moment” after the “significant community response” to the board decision.
In the days after the Bondi Beach attack, Jewish community groups and the Israeli government criticized Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for failing to act on a rise in antisemitic attacks and criticized protest marches against Israel’s war in Gaza held since 2023.
Albanese said last week a Royal Commission will consider the events of the shooting as well as antisemitism and social cohesion in Australia. Albanese said on Monday he would recall parliament next week to pass tougher hate speech laws.
On Monday, New South Wales state premier Chris Minns announced new rules that would allow local councils to cut off power and water to illegally operating prayer halls.
Minns said the new rules were prompted by the difficulty in closing a prayer hall in Sydney linked to a cleric found by a court to have made statements intimidating Jewish Australians.
The mayor of the western Sydney suburb of Fairfield said the rules were ill-considered and councils should not be responsible for determining hate speech.
“Freedom of speech is something that should always be allowed, as long as it is done in a peaceful way,” Mayor Frank Carbone told Reuters.
