Canadian crypto-currency exchange firm Arbitrade bought four casts from South African businessman Malcolm Duncan.

The firm said it planned to launch a global “Golden Hands of Nelson Mandela” tour to educate young people about the anti-apartheid icon’s life.

This is the first time artefacts of Mr Mandela have been sold in bitcoin.

Mr Mandela was jailed for 27 years for fighting white minority rule in South Africa.

He was released in 1990, and served as president from 1994 to 1999.

Mr Mandela died in 2013 at the age of 95. He had turned into a global brand, with businessmen and artists cashing in on his name.

Mr Duncan, who now lives in Canada, bought the casts from mining group Harmony Gold in 2002 for about $31,000.

Half of the money paid to Harmony Gold was meant to go to charity, but it remains unclear as to whether that happened, Bloomberg news agency reports.

Harmony said it had “supplied Mr Duncan with the necessary paperwork verifying the provenance as requested by his attorneys,” but declined to comment on what happened to the donation, Bloomberg reports.

The casts, which weigh around 20lb (9kg), include Mr Mandela’s hand, palm and fist. They are part of a collection meant to mark the years the former president spent in prison on Robben Island.

The artefacts are believed to be the only ones left in the world.

The other sets of the collection were ordered to be destroyed by Mr Mandela, Mr Duncan told Bloomberg.

It was part of the former president’s attempt to control his copyright after a number of scandals, including forgery allegations, arose around the sale of art bearing his image and name.

Arbitrade has paid Mr Duncan a bitcoin deposit that has been converted to $50,000, and the rest is expected to be paid in quarterly instalments of at least $2m, Bloomberg reports.

“They take possession when I have the dollar amount in the bank, At two-and-a-quarter million at a time, they take one hand at a time,” Mr Duncan was quoted as saying.

Arbitrade is due to launch an initial coin offering and plans to mine its own crypto-currencies and trade others, Bloomberg reports.

The company’s chairman, Len Schutzman, told the news agency that it will back all its virtual currency with a percentage of physical metal, such as gold.

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Source: BBC

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Mandela’s family had complained that the book, written by his doctor of almost 10 years, contained personal details.

The publisher said it had pulled the book “out of respect” for the family.

It added that the author had told them Mr Mandela’s family had asked for the book to be written.

The author, Dr Vejay Ramlakan, said he had received permission to write the book Mandela’s Last Years, but did not say specifically from whom.

On Friday, Nelson Mandela’s widow Graca Machel was considering legal action against the book, accusing Dr Ramlakan of breaching patient confidentiality.

The book is reported to expose “undignified” episodes at the end of his life, as well as family squabbles.

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Source: BBC

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Ndileka Mandela, 52, has been told she should instead help revive the party.

She had earlier stated she no longer believed the ANC represented the values of her illustrious relative.

Ms Mandela said the party was neglecting to care for the poor.

“I will not be voting for something that does not resonate with me anymore, and does not resonate for what granddad and his comrades fought for,” she told News 24 South Africa..

Ms Mandela, a nurse, runs a Mandela family foundation to tackle rural poverty.

She said the ANC’s recent period in power had left her feeling despondent, especially when it came to its record in wasting public money.

Ms Mandela identified the country’s social care crisis and its treatment of psychiatric patients as “tipping points” that added to her loss of faith in the ANC.

But her brother was quick to urge her to re-think.

“I call on you… to reconsider your decision,” News 24 reported Mandla Mandela as writing in an open letter to her.

“Please do not throw the baby out with the bathwater. What we are dissatisfied with in the ANC, it is our obligation to set right.

“The ANC has been the heartbeat of our family for many years. One can only imagine the many crises and challenges our grandfather… lived through since joining the ANC in 1944.”

Mr Mandela exhorted his sister to remain within the ANC, breathe new life into it and “re-inculcate the values and principles that secured our democracy”.

His letter on Friday described his sister’s move as “heart-wrenching”.

But Ms Mandela seems unlikely to change her mind.

“I get very incensed with people who think they knew my grandfather more than his own family did,” she said on Friday.

“Nobody can actually articulate how granddad felt across the board, not just as a politician but as a father, as a family man. So you can’t tell me he would be disappointed.”

The ANC has held power in South Africa since Nelson Mandela was elected president in the country’s first democratic elections in 1994.

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Source: BBC

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