Closed Liliesleaf Farm is being rescued

Efforts are being taken to rescue Liliesleaf Farm, the historic museum that closed down last year following a financial crisis.

Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa said work was in progress to get Liliesleaf, located in Rivonia, back on track.

He replied to written questions by EFF MP Nonhlanhla Mkhonto. She asked if any intervention had been put in place to permanently remedy the crisis in Liliesleaf.

Mthethwa replied: “Yes, a turnaround strategy is being implemented by the Liliesleaf board to permanently remedy the crisis.

“Furthermore, a team comprising the department, Liliesleaf board and Freedom Park is implementing a process towards the declaration of the Liliesleaf Museum as a cultural institution in accordance with the Cultural Institutions Act, 119 of 1999.”

Declaring Liliesleaf a cultural institution would render it eligible for annual funding from the Arts and Culture Department.

Announcing the closure of the farm last September, the department partly blamed the non-declaration on the financial crisis.

“Liliesleaf Trust is ineligible to receive yearly operational funds from the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture since the site has not been designated as a Declared Cultural Institution under the Cultural Institutions Act and a Schedule 3A Public Entity under the Public Finance Management Act,” Masechaba Khumalo, Mthethwa’s spokesperson, said at the time.

But the department revealed that it had funded Liliesleaf in the range of R70 million over a period of 13 years, before the shutdown.

The department said that R8.1m of this money was unaccounted for, leading to its decision to stop funding the museum.

Nicholas Wolpe, the museum’s suspended CEO, publicly denied that R8.1m was unaccounted for. He maintained that it was used for the benefit of the museum.

Liliesleaf is considered a heritage site with an important place in South Africa’s liberation history.

It was the secret headquarters of the ANC, SACP and Umkhonto we Sizwe between 1961 and 1963.

The apartheid police raided it on July 11, 1963. The famous Rivonia Trial followed this raid.

Nelson Mandela was tried in the Rivonia Trial alongside Walter Sisulu, Denis Goldberg, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada, Lionel Bernstein, Raymond Mhlaba, James Kantor, Elias Motsoaledi and Andrew Mlangeni.

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