JOHANNESBURG: He is Africa’s most famous man, the subject of countless biographies and TV documentaries, his every move now scrutinised more closely than ever. But nobody, it seems, has any idea how rich Nelson Mandela is, or where his money came from.

“I don’t know,” was the answer on Wednesday from the Nelson Mandela Foundation, from a leading South African newspaper editor and from a veteran journalist who has been reporting on Mandela for several decades. Verne Harris, head of memory programming at the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory and keeper of his archive, emailed simply: “I haven’t a clue!” Newspaper cuttings about the issue are remarkably scarce. Such is Mandela’s quasi-religious status that questions on the subject are almost taboo.

One local journalist, who did not wish to be named, said: “Most South Africans have not wanted to ask. It’s a thing that people have looked away from. I know Mandela never had a hard time asking for money. He was known as the African National Congress’s greatest fundraiser.”

The former president’s ability to raise money for his party and for charities has never been in doubt. But his personal finances remain shrouded in mystery. Some observers have suggested that, having lived without it for 27 years in prison, he was naive in money matters after his release. There have been claims of donations from wealthy businessmen.

But Mandela also showed a laudable aversion to greed. He cut his presidential salary when he came to power in 1994, and handed over a further third of it as a regular donation to a children’s fund. His homes in Johannesburg and his ancestral village of Qunu are grand by local standards but hardly palatial.

Last year it emerged that in 2005 Mandela gave Jacob Zuma, the current South African president, a cheque for 1m rand, then worth about GBP80,000. This followed an earlier gift of 2m rand. It is unlikely to have been the only time he bailed out a struggling comrade.

George Bizos, Mandela’s long time friend and lawyer, said: “If anyone suggests he’s a multi-millionaire, they’re wrong. He’s not a rich man. He has a couple of trusts for his children and grandchildren. His earnings are technically nil, other than the goodwill of people inside and outside South Africa who helped with the education of the children. He has always insisted that money donated should be used for building schools and hospitals.”

By arrangement with the Guardian