Outrage over Mandela sculpture’s bunny ear
JOHANNESBURG — A new ninemetre sculpture of Nelson Mandela is billed as the biggest statue of the late South African leader. It also has a tiny, barely visible quirk: a sculpted rabbit tucked inside one of the bronze ears.
South African officials want the miniature bunny removed from the statue, which was unveiled outside the government complex in Pretoria, the capital, on Dec. 16, the day after Mandela’s funeral. The department of arts and culture said it didn’t know the sculptors, Andre Prinsloo and Ruhan Janse van Vuuren, had added a rabbit, said to be a discreet signature of their work.
“It doesn’t belong there,” said Mogomotsi Mogodiri, a department spokesman. “The statue represents what everyone in South Africa is proud of.”
The department is seeking to have the rabbit removed.
The giant work stands with arms outstretched, symbolizing Mandela’s devotion to inclusiveness, outside the Union Buildings, where the body of the prisoner who opposed white rule and became South Africa’s first black president lay in state after his death Dec. 5 at the age of 95.
The artists did not respond to requests for comment from the Associated Press.
South Africa’s Beeld newspaper quoted the artists as saying they added the rabbit as a trademark after officials would not allow them to engrave their signatures on the statue’s trousers. They said the rabbit represented the pressure of finishing the sculpture on time because “haas” — the word for rabbit in the Dutch-based Afrikaans language — also means “haste.”
Paul Mashatile, the arts and culture minister, said the sculptors have apologized for offending those who felt the rabbit was disrespectful toward Mandela’s legacy.