The hotel’s rooms are named after monikers Mandela received, including his inmate number 466/64 from his time on Robben Island. Photo / Supplied
The hotel’s rooms are named after monikers Mandela received, including his inmate number 466/64 from his time on Robben Island. Photo / Supplied
Catherine McGregor spends an amazing night at Sanctuary Mandela, a unique boutique hotel built inside the former Johannesburg home of Nelson Mandela
When you arrive at a hotel for the first time, the last thing you expect to be told is “Welcome home”. But that’s how the staff at Sanctuary Mandela greet everyone who stays there, return guests and newcomers alike.
The reasons for the choice of words help sum up what makes this boutique hotel so special. I’m told that the greeting is meant to communicate that this is a place of comfort and peace, but it’s also a reminder of something far simpler: you’re standing in a home.
And not just anyone’s home. In the upmarket Johannesburg suburb of Houghton, Sanctuary Mandela is built into a house that Nelson Mandela lived in for the majority of his presidency. After being released from decades of incarceration in 1990, Mandela moved here in 1992. He left six years later for a larger house a few blocks away.
Sanctuary Mandela is a boutique hotel built into Nelson Mandela's former Johannesburg residence. Photo / Supplied
After he moved out, squatters moved in. Photos in the hotel lobby show the shocking state of the building when, after decades of neglect, renovations finally began. While the front of the house was left untouched, the back was knocked through and extended, creating a simple, light-filled space with a bar and restaurant on the ground floor and the nine bedrooms arranged around a first-floor atrium.
After settling into our rooms, we return to the lobby to start the guided tour, an included feature of every stay and an absolute must to fully appreciate the history of this incredibly special place. We begin outside, next to the rose garden that Mandela would admire as he read his morning newspaper. He’d circle the names of high-performing stocks, we’re told, and then invite the wealthy CEOs over to discuss how they would contribute to South Africa’s post-apartheid rebuild.
Mandela lived in the house during his presidency, hosting influential discussions that helped shape South Africa’s post-apartheid era. Photo / Supplied
As a travel writer, I know that the conference room is always the least interesting part of any hotel tour – except at Sanctuary Mandela. Converted from the president’s private study, the Dalibunga room – the word means “convenor of meetings” in Xhosa, Mandela’s language of birth – was the location of some of the most consequential discussions in South African history, including talks that averted civil war during a particularly fraught period of the democratic transition. Holding a boring business meeting in this conference room? Total power move.
The rooms are each named after a moniker Mandela received during his 95 years of life, from Rolihlahla, his Xhosa birth name, to Tata, the name he was called by his beloved grandchildren. The largest of the rooms is the presidential suite, the actual bedroom where President Mandela once slept. The smallest is named 466/64 – his inmate number at Robben Island, where he endured 18 years in a 2sq m cell.
Guests can take a guided tour to learn about Mandela’s life, from his morning routine in the rose garden to pivotal moments in South African history. Photo / Supplied
At one end of a balcony looms a giant photo of a young Nelson in boxing attire, his fists raised awkwardly for the camera. “Madiba loved boxing,” says our guide, using the Xhosa clan name for Mandela that many South Africans employ as a mark of affection and respect, “but he was never any good at it.” She laughs. For all the historic weight of Sanctuary Mandela, there’s no stuffiness about this place. Mandela’s own humour and humility have been watchwords at Sanctuary Mandela from the very beginning. “When they were designing the hotel, they could have added on more, made it even more luxurious,” she says, “but that’s not what he would have wanted.”
While the President’s life plays a huge part in Sanctuary Mandela’s identity, this isn’t meant to be a museum to the great man (for that, you can tour the fascinating exhibitions at the Mandela Foundation just down the road). It’s first and foremost a great place to stay, with rooms that are as stylish and luxurious as any other modern boutique hotel. Rich forest green – Mandela’s favourite colour – features heavily, along with lots of warm wood and leather. Bathrooms are spacious and comfortable, each with a deep freestanding bath.
The hotel's décor, with rich forest green, warm wood, and leather, reflects Mandela's favourite colours. Photo / Supplied
Our day finishes with dinner at Insights, the hotel’s restaurant – but again, not just any hotel restaurant. Xoliswa Ndoyiya, Mandela’s longtime personal chef, helped craft the menu, which includes a number of his favourite dishes. Ndoyiya is getting on in years, but she still regularly cooks at the restaurant, in the same place where she fed the President all those years ago. We’re told he was particularly fond of the Camp Malay-style fish, and I can confirm it was absolutely delicious.
Mandela’s personal chef, Xoliswa Ndoyiya, crafted the hotel's menu, featuring his favourite dishes like Camp Malay-style fish. Photo / Supplied
As we eat, we hear stories from the staff about Mandela’s life here, both the quiet moments with his close family and the visits from people like Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jackson and Bill Clinton, all of whom he considered good friends. But mostly they talk of the deep pride they take in working at Sanctuary Mandela, a place still imbued with Nelson Mandela’s warmth, kindness and hope for the future.
Checklist
JOHANNESBURG
GETTING THERE
Fly from Auckland to Johannesburg with one stopover with Qantas, Singapore Airlines (in alliance with Air NZ), Emirates and Qatar Airways.
