In second bid, CIL to try and buy Gandhi's SA home

The state-run Coal India Limited will make its second attempt to buy the house once occupied by Mahatma Gandhi in Johannesburg, where he had lived for over a year, with the desire to build a memorial there.

The PSU had made its first attempt to buy the house of the Father of the Nation in August 2009, when some officials learnt it was for sale. But the owner of the property had decided to sell it to someone else.

However, the house could not be sold as it was not registered then. Union coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said he would be going to South Africa in this connection on January 4. “The owner of the house has expressed her willingness to talk to us regarding our proposal to buy Gandhiji’s house and build a memorial there. I will leave for official work in Mozambique and South Africa on January 4 and will talk to her during my visit to Johannesburg. Hopefully, we should be able to buy the house this time,” Jaiswal said.

Officers and other employees of the ‘navratna’ company have volunteered to contribute a day’s salary each in order to collect money to buy the Gandhi memorabilia and preserve it, he said.

Gandhi, who went to South Africa in 1893 to handle a legal case in Pretoria, moved to Johannesburg in 1903. After living in rooms behind his office on Rissik Street for some time, he moved into his partner Henry Pollak’s 34 Grove Road house, which still stands.