NEWS: New plan for Madiba statue

Committee approves first step towards establishment of biggest Mandela figure, precinct

AMADIBA statue is on the cards for Nelson Mandela Bay once again after a plan for the project was passed yesterday by the economic development, tourism and agriculture standing committee. The “process plan” tabled in the meeting is the first step towards seeing the city develop the biggest statue of Nelson Mandela, along with a precinct.

A statue of Mandela for the city has been touted for numerous years.

Currently, the largest statue stands at 9m at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.

Committee political head Andrew Whitfield said the statue would reinforce the city’s tourism offering.

“We need more iconic products that are going to attract people to Nelson Mandela Bay, but also to help us reinforce our brand as Nelson Mandela Bay,” he said.

“Many cities in the world have statues of Mandela, [but] we believe that because of the name of our city we should be showcasing the best statue in the world that will draw people to our city.”

He said they would later evaluate what kind of precinct would be developed along with the type of statue.

“We need to have an active precinct where people could interact with an active museum display and other options.

“The concept still needs to be worked into the process plan and we need to go through a lot of work to come up with our options.”

It is unclear how much the statue and the precinct will cost and when the plan would start to unfold.

This initial plan will be followed by numerous steps, such as a pre-feasibility study to see where the statue and precinct could be built. In the plan, land behind St Mary’s Cemetery in South End has already been earmarked as a possible location.

Committee executive director Anele Qaba said the idea had been inspired by the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro.

“As a city we don’t have a lot of tourism offerings and we are looking at cities that are doing well and have an identity.

“We are looking at something that will speak to the city, but we have decided it needs to be thorough and that is why we have formulated the plan,” Qaba said.

EFF councillor Yoliswa Yako agreed with the plan and proposed that other struggle heroes be included in the precinct. “We’ve got statues of Nelson Mandela all over the world, but the city should have been the first to have a statue because we are named after him.

“There also needs to be a business hub around the statue. It’s not enough to just have a statue of Mandela.

“It would also be nice to highlight other people who contributed to the struggle, such as Govan Mbeki and Raymond Mhlaba.”

We need more iconic products that are going to attract people to [the Bay]