Freedom Charter rescued from auction in the UK

KARABO KEEPILE - May 09 2010 09:54

The original, signed South African Freedom Charter, as adopted at the Congress of the People in Kliptown in 1955, was handed over to the government on May 7 by the Liliesleaf Trust in Johannesburg, after it was saved from going on auction in the United Kingdom.

The charter was bought from UK auctioneers Bonhams for £60 000, after Nic Wolpe, the Liliesleaf Trust's CEO was contacted by the National Archives -- just days before the auction -- asking if he could help save the historic document.

"Whomever may have purchased it -- because there were five interested parties -- could have easily slipped it into his suitcase and left the country and we would not have been any the wiser, Wolpe told the M&G.

A man looks at the original copy of the Freedom Charter, a document signed and adopted by members of the Congress Alliance in 1955, at Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, Johannesburg, on May 7. (Werner Beukes, Sapa)