Questions surrounding Madiba statue still not answered

MBOMBELA – The Nelson Mandela statue came with more questions than answers, the biggest of which is how the R8,5 million for the project was spent.

After almost two weeks of enquiries to the Department of Culture, Sport and Recreation, a breakdown of the budget has still not been made available to Lowvelder.

The statue, along with cenotaphs commemorating freedom icons, was unveiled on September 28 at the government complex in Riverside. The renaming of various buildings was also part of the project and major celebrations were held on the day.

The newspaper previously reported that a budget of R8,3 million for the statue was awarded by the department to Mideast Investment of which the sole director is the 25-year-old Mishkah Theron.

What the department would say was that Mideast Investment conformed to the prescripts set out by supply chain management. The various criteria on functionality held that bids which scored low on the functionality threshold were disqualified.

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Theron could not be reached by Lowvelder on the various numbers provided on Mideast Investment’s CIPRO account, nor could the newspaper gain access to her offices, located in a security complex in the city, to obtain comment from the service provider.

Sibongile Nkosi, spokesman for culture, sport and recreation, previously explained that the R8,5 million for the whole project was used for the following: design and artwork, clay modelling of marquette, clay modelling of life-sized armature, the stainless steel structure of the monument, scaling, mould, plinth marble, plinth concrete, the transport of the statue and erection.

Also in the cost was the integration of other struggle icons (cenotaphs) and the celebration events. She, however, could not award specific amounts to each one of these elements.

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