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The Congress of South African Trade Unions is extremely concerned at the report that Leon Levy, former president of the SA Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU), has put up for sale a signed copy of the Freedom Charter and that it will be sold at auction in London tomorrow, 24 March 2010.

The copy was signed in 1955 by ANC president Albert Luthuli, Leon Levy in his capacity as president of the SA Congress of Trade Unions, and the presidents of the National Indian Congress, the SA Coloured People's Congress and the SA Congress of Democrats. The auctioneers, Bonhams, expect it to fetch between R221 561 and R332 156.

COSATU believes that this sale should be suspended to allow for a national debate on the status of this extremely significant part of our heritage, and agrees with the SA Heritage Resources Agency that it is "an item of outstanding national importance".

It would be preferable for the document to be donated to the ANC, COSATU or a national museum than to be sold to the highest bidder. Whatever the legal position on the ownership of the document, it is surely morally the property of the organisation which Leon Levy represented, SACTU, and its successors, including COSATU, and the national as a whole, and not just one individual.