The end of the Liliesleaf era

A sombre press statement issued by The Liliesleaf Trust announced its closure at midnight on Wednesday, 1 September, following years of financial difficulty and a lack of political will to ensure its survival.

“This isn’t something that happened out of the blue,” said Nicholas Wolpe, the founder and chief executive of The Liliesleaf Trust.

“It shouldn’t come as a surprise. The signs for the entire sector, including all sports, arts, and culture, have been there for years. Sadly, COVID-19 has shone a light on something that has been a perpetual, structural problem.”

Wolpe fought tooth and nail to keep the iconic, historical place of memory afloat. A crowdfunding campaign earlier this year kept the doors open for a while, but the situation became unsustainable.

“There is donor fatigue out there,” he said. “We have a department of arts and culture that is totally disinterested and shows no concern, sensitivity, or understanding. It’s the department’s responsibility to provide financial resources and an environment that ensures that as a collective, we all survive.”

The stress of unsuccessfully trying to reach the ear of those in power sent Wolpe’s blood pressure sky high.

“I experienced a heart attack in July, and my cardiologist says it’s from all the stress,” he told the SA Jewish Report.

He hopes Liliesleaf’s closure will be temporary. “At this point, the battle may be lost, but the war has yet to be won.”

Wolpe has become the mouthpiece for the arts, heritage, and culture sector – one which, in his view, is dismally neglected. He has relentlessly tried to highlight the anger and frustration felt by artists at what he calls the “abject failure of a minister and his officials to address the ailing plight and gradual demise of the sector”.

In a Facebook post this week, Wolpe said, “I’m yet again reminded of the evocative poem by Martin Niemöller, First they came, and in particular the last few lines: ‘Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.’ This can easily be changed to, ‘soon there will be no art, culture, or heritage to protect, preserve, or cherish’”.

After an endless battle with local authorities to explain Liliesleaf’s dire financial situation, Wolpe wrote to Gauteng Premier David Makhura, pleading for political support for the sector.

He referred to a WhatsApp message by Gauteng MEC Mbali Hlophe saying she would look into the privately owned heritage site, but said nothing had come of it.

“I must confess, given the dire financial plight Liliesleaf, museums, other sites of memory are facing, I’m bewildered, as it would appear MEC Hlophe has taken no further steps or action,” he said.

Between 1961 and 1963, Liliesleaf served as the secret headquarters and nerve centre of the African National Congress, South African Communist Party, Umkhonto we Sizwe, and Congress Alliance. It was at Liliesleaf that the overthrow of the apartheid regime was discussed, and where leaders of the liberation movement took refuge in their struggle for a non-racial, just, free, and democratic South Africa.

Wolpe was only a baby when police raided Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, Johannesburg, on 11 July 1963, arresting the high command of Umkhonto we Sizwe. His father, Harold, was one of them.

The famous Rivonia Trial followed. The accused included Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada, Denis Goldberg, Elias Motsoaledi, Lionel Bernstein, James Kantor, Andrew Mlangeni, and Raymond Mhlaba. Kantor and Bernstein were acquitted, but the other eight were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.

Wolpe’s parents, Harold and AnnMarie, fled into exile shortly after Harold escaped from the Marshall Square police headquarters in Johannesburg by bribing a young warder, just before the start of the Rivonia Trial. Wolpe returned to South Africa as a young man on a mission to bring those defining moments in the history of South Africa to life.

“I have put 20 years of my life into Liliesleaf, and it has come at a cost. I’m at the end of my tether, so I’m having to re-evaluate possibilities for the future,” he said.