Family welcome KZN plan for statue
PLANS are afoot to honour late anti-apartheid Struggle hero Fatima Meer with a bronze statue, to be erected in Durban. The KwaZulu-Natal government has given artists until April 11 to bid for the project.
The life-sized Meer bronze statue is destined for a granite-faced plinth near the Durban City Hall.
The winning sculptor must have at least 10 years’ experience and must “liaise with family members regularly as part of manufacture”, according to the tender notice.
Meer’s daughter, Shamim Meer, said the family welcomed plans for a statue.
“It’s an honour to have the province think of my mother,” she said from Johannesburg, “We have been consulted; it’s been good.”
Initially there had been talk of a statue of her father, Ismail, the SA Indian Congress and Communist Party member, treason triallist and friend of Nelson Mandela.
She said the family was happy the government was including them in the process. “We are available to have discussions,” she said.
Shamim edited and completed Fatima Meer: Memories of Love and Struggle, the unfinished autobiography Fatima left at her death in 2010.
Shamim’s son, Zen Marie, an artist and fine art lecturer at Wits University, was also in support of efforts to honour Meer’s legacy but questioned the form this might take.
He suggested alternatives like libraries, community halls and day-care centres. – African News Agency (ANA)