Nelson Mandela's estate: lack of funds and family feuds taint Madiba's name today
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00:00 It was here, on the corner of 12th Avenue in Johannesburg, that Nelson Mandela lived
00:04 when he was president. But this house, which has seen the world's highest dignitaries pass
00:08 through its doors, is now abandoned. Mandela had specified in his will that his grandsons
00:13 could live there, but nobody took responsibility to pay municipal bills amounting to 20,000
00:19 euros. This grandson deplores the attitude of the trust in charge of his grandfather's
00:23 inheritance.
00:24 The water bill was becoming too expensive. We then figured out that there was a water
00:28 leak in one of the very big palm trees. We then fixed that water leak. Still, the trust
00:32 is not willing to help maintain the house or pay electricity or pay municipal bills
00:37 at all.
00:39 The Mandela Foundation was also tarnished by controversy when its director was forced
00:44 to resign in June. A researcher present since the foundation's inception says Madiba was
00:49 already worried, before his death, about the direction in which the country was moving.
00:55 Well, I spent a lot of time with Madiba looking at the reports of terrible failures of service
01:03 delivery, corruption, Madiba reading his newspapers. It's in that context that I saw his pain and
01:13 heard his pain. So, where we are landing today in 2023, I'm in pain when I see what we're
01:24 going through.
01:25 Madiba's dream to build a children's hospital came true in 2017. However, it is operating
01:31 at half capacity while the oncology and two other wards are closed due to insufficient
01:36 funds. The government cannot afford to increase its subsidies.
01:40 The patients are knocking at the door. They're getting referrals that we cannot bring in.
01:44 And so, for us, once we have the funding, we know definitely that we're going to grow.
01:49 Without Nelson Mandela, the institutions that bear his name are struggling to raise funds
01:54 that could change more lives for the better.
01:56 [BLANK_AUDIO]