Durban - EThekwini Municipality has said the R22 million it paid for two bronze statues, of Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo, was a “low price” compared with the other quotes that it had received.
The cost, the municipality said, was the cheapest as other quotes were double that amount.
The Mercury has also learnt that the artist commissioned to make the statues hails from KwaZulu-Natal. However, the municipality has declined to provide the identity of the artist.
“Unfortunately, we cannot divulge the person or the artist because of the legal clause in the service level agreement between the municipality and the artist concerned.
“Both statues cost roughly R22m. This was the cheapest figure as compared to others who wanted about the same price for only one statue,” said municipal spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela.
The two statues sparked outrage
and accusations that the ANC was monopolising the Struggle history and the fight against apartheid by honouring only individuals who were leaders of the party.
Other parties warned that if the ANC continued in this vein, it ran the risk of seeing the statues being removed if it lost control of the city.
The ANC currently governs in eThekwini after it formed a coalition with smaller parties.
Each statue will measure about 9m in height, similar to the Mandela statue that was erected in Pretoria a few years ago.
According to reports, the Pretoria bronze-plated statue was created by sculptors Andre Prinsloo and Ruhan Janse van Vuuren and it took them four months to make.
The Durban ones that will be installed in eThekwini were commissioned more than two years ago.
The statues, which were commissioned before the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, are ready to be shipped to the Durban City Hall where they are to be installed.
Councillors in the executive committee were recently briefed on the process and told that the council needed an additional R1m to have the statues installed.
A report on the matter said the city was requesting R1m to install the bronze statues and for the renaming of Francis Farewell Square in honour of Tambo.
It called for authority to be granted to the parks, recreation and culture unit to incur expenditure to the amount of R1m to position the statues.
DA councillor Yogis Govender said the ANC needed to go back to basics with service delivery and cut all the frills and nice-to-have items from the budget.
She said basic human rights were being infringed upon daily and the city had the capacity to reprioritise the budget for critical infrastructure and preventative maintenance.
IFP councillor Mdu Nkosi said a lot could have been done with the R22m.
“What benefit are these statues to the people of eThekwini? Nothing. There are many service-delivery matters that could have been attended to with that money.”