Lisa Isaacs
A SCULPTURE of late former president Nelson Mandela was unveiled at the City Hall as city officials and Struggle stalwart Ahmed Kathrada gathered to mark Freedom Day yesterday.
The artwork, which was donated to the city, is situated a few metres away from the spot where Mandela delivered his first public speech as a free man hours after his release from prison on February 11, 1990.
Fours years later – on April 27, 1994, – all South Africans voted in the country’s first democratic elections.
Mayor Patricia de Lille said yesterday that on the first anniversary of Freedom Day in 1995, Mandela had said that April 27, 1994, marked the crossing of the divide, from a past of conflict and division to the possibility of unity and peace.
“Cape Town has always had a special association with Nelson Mandela, who felt a close affinity for the city in which he spent 27 years of his life as a prisoner, along with his close friend Ahmed Kathrada, who spent 26 of those years in prison with Madiba,” De Lille said.
On the day of his release from prison, Mandela said the city had been his home for three decades.
“Your mass marches and other forms of struggle have served as a constant source of strength to all political prisoners,” Madiba had said.
De Lille said: “Our mission is to build an inclusive city, one which recognises our history and ensures that this is a place where we can remember the past, but also build a better future. I believe that we can repay our debt to him by living our freedom in the way he envisioned it.”
Kathrada said the bust of Mandela that was unveiled yesterday had been placed where it belonged and he hoped similar ones would appear across the country.
“Mandela was an individual, but he always emphasised that he was speaking as part of a collective and that’s what we have to remember.
“When we remember the individual Mandela, we must always remember those who were with him – the Sisulus, the Govan Mbekis, Joe Slovos, Moses Kothanes, JB Marks, we must also remember them.”
The bust was created by sculptor Bill Davis of Hermanus, who said he was asked in 2008 to make a sculpture of Madiba, while he was undergoing treatment for throat cancer.
Three months later, he began work on a clay model of Nelson Mandela, said Davis.
“We are here just a few steps away from where Nelson Mandela gave his iconic speech. It’s a very special place.
“He has left us with a great legacy. This work is a token of respect to him and what he still stands for.
“One of the shoulders on the bust is different to the other, as a symbol of Madiba’s suffering and contribution to the country,” Davis said.