The breakdown of how the R8,3 million budgeted for the statue of Nelson Mandela was spent remains a mystery, although the Department of Culture, Sport and Recreation said they followed all procedures before awarding the tender.

The statue is outside the provincial legislature and was erected to honour Madiba on his 100th birthday.

During a meeting with Lowvelder, the HOD of culture, sport and recreation, Godfrey Ntombela, said there were eight bidders that submitted their proposal and they chose the best.

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Ntombela said everything was done lawfully and if there is anyone who knows any illegal activities the department is not aware of, they can inform them.

“Some submitted proposals without the date on which the statue will be completed, some without the amount they were willing to do it for and some charged an amount that was beyond our budget,” said Ntombela.

“If there were many proposals we could say there might have been an error, although there were only eight which made it easy to go through all of them. We looked at various things, including functionality, the amount and the period to complete the statue. The tender was awarded lawfully,” he said.

The public have also raised their concerns about the six-metre bronze statue.

The premier Refilwe Mtshweni, asked the MEC for sports and recreation, Thandi Shongwe to enforce remedial action aimed at addressing the inconsistencies within 30 days, since the statue had failed in its intended objective to pay homage to the legacy of the former president.

Ntombela said the premier asked them to consider making changes and not to remove the statue.

“What we have realised is that the majority of people complaining about the appearance of the statue are in Mbombela, not the rest of the citizens living in the province. It is not that we do not respect the public’s view, however, they have to understand that the appearance is how the artist sees Madiba. It will not look exactly like him. It will look the way they see him.”
Mishkah Theron is the service provider from Mideast Investments that got the
R8,3 million tender.

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The department said Theron had previous experience in dealing with statues and public memorials. The Saul Mkhize statue in Saul Mkhizeville, near Piet Retief in the Gert Sibande District, is one of the works her company constructed and it was unveiled in March 2015.

During an interview with the newspaper, Michael Canadas, the artist from The Loop Art Foundry confirmed that he did not get the R8,3 million since he did not win the tender. He said he got the amount that he charged the service provider, not what the department offered Mideast Investments.

Ntombela said it was not part of their responsibility to advise the service provider on how to spend the funds.
“What we do is to look for the right service provider and how he/she spends the money to get the service we requested is their own prerogative,” he said.