After ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule and the former Free State provincial executive committee (PEC) were stopped in their tracks while trying to appeal a court decision to disband the PEC, a fresh elective provincial conference is now planned in which the two rival factions in the province will contest for power. The sight of the decaying Robben Island Museum surely has battle-scarred freedom fighters Nelson Mandela, Robert Sobukwe and Walter Sisulu turning in their graves. According to a former prisoner, the iconic parts of the museum – including the infamous No 5 cell, where Mandela (prisoner number 46664) served 18 of his 27 years in prison – are “saddening”.