Mandela’s letters found at University of Fort Hare

According to the Sunday Times of 25 April 2010, a massive collection of Nelson Mandela’s letters, journals and other documents has been found in a store-room at the University of Fort Hare’s National Heritage and Cultural Studies Centre. These documents were found when material was moved from the basement of the university to the newly built state-of-the-art archive.

These documents, dated between 1993 and 1997 contain details of Nelson Mandela’s presidency and the inner workings of the African National Congress (ANC), and are described by archivist Mark Snyders as a “national treasure”. Professor Cornelius Thomas is quoted as saying that while he could not fully verify the material he believed it to be authentic.

The report alleges that amongst the documents is a letter was found in which Mandela indictates his frustration over the controversial :kill the boer, kill the farmer” chant by former ANC Youth League leader Peter Mokaba and that several documents outline several cases of corruption, fraud and theft of donor funding by senior ANC officials.

Mandela’s forgotten letters
http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/article418892.ece/Mandelas-forgotten—letters

Madiba artifacts found
http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/article418975.ece/Madiba-artifacts-found

Mandela literature unpublished
http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/article418959.ece/Mandela-literature—unpublished

Within days of the announcment by the University of Fort Hare, the Dispatch reported that the archive had been closed to the public pending an investigation by the ANC and quotes Professor Thomas as saying, ” following the Sunday Times article the ANC asked the university questions and up until those questions have been answered the archives are temporarily on hold”. Thomas explained that the collection was owned by the ANC, who had handed them lver to the university for safekeeping and research purposes.

ANC gags UFH on Mandela letters
http://blogs.dispatch.co.za/dispatchnow/?s=ANC+gags+UFH&x=9&y=1

This issue raises a series of interesting questions.

Is it in the public interest to make these documents freely available?
Is it the owners perogative to decide what information is made available in the public domain?
Did the ANC, in their agreement with the archive, stipulate that the material should be subject to access restrictions or placed under embargo?
Where is the line drawn between records of government and records of a political party?
Are those who fear that confidential information about their activities may be open to public scrutiny permitted to access the archive, to see what information it contains?
What happens should affected indiviuals identify material considered to be of a compromising nature?
How may the archive manage the tensions between respecting the right of individuals to privacy while at the same time meeting the requirment to make information accessible?
Does the action of closing or restricting access to these archives, even temporarily, pose a threat to institutions holding similar materials?
What happens to the historical record should the owner of these documents remove and destroy any that reflect negatively on the party and its members?

We await the next installment in this storywith interest.