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Cape Town - The Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF) has threatened legal action against those illegally exploiting the former president's name and image.
"We wish to reiterate Mr Mandela's own words: his image and name is not for sale," NMF chief executive Achmat Dangor said in a statement on Wednesday.
"We have recently noted a disturbing trend where Mr Mandela's name and image are being used, without authorisation, to sell products and services."
In essence the purveyors of these unauthorised goods and services were law-breakers, profiting from the image of a valuable national asset, albeit a human one.
It was furthermore, quite tragic, that it was not usually the poor and the unemployed who carried on this illegal activity, but established so-called entrepreneurs.
Won't hesitate legal action
The NMF, in conjunction with its two sister organisations, the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund (NMCF) and the Mandela Rhodes Foundation (MRF), and Mandela's personal lawyers, would not hesitate to take legal action against those who persisted in what amounted to counterfeiting and trafficking of Mandela imagery, Dangor said.
During and after Mandela's presidential years, his name and/or image was protected by the state under the Merchandise and Marks Act.
In addition, when stepping down as president in 1999, he took further legal steps to protect his name and image from commercial exploitation, and from being used without authorisation in other ways.
When retiring from active public life in June 2004, he repeated that his name and image should be used solely for charitable purposes.
He furthermore announced that he had selected three charitable organisations to carry on his work - the NMCF (founded 1994), the NMF (founded 1999), and the MRF (founded 2002).
In addition to copyright laws protecting Mandela's name locally and internationally (under the Paris Convention), the three organisations registered their trademarks to further protect misuse of their founder's name and image.
Over the years individuals and organisations all over the world had largely respected Mandela's rights and his wishes, seeking authorisation to use his name and or image, and abiding by the response, even when permission was declined, Dangor said.