Mandela rabbit to be removed

The Department of Arts and Culture is in discussion with the commissioned company, Koketso Growth to remove the hidden sculptured rabbit from the ear of the Nelson Mandela statue at the Union Buildings, the Department said.

“There are discussions between the Department and the commissioned company to restore the integrity of the statue. We are trying to get expert opinion to achieve this without causing any damage or disfigurement. The removal of the rabbit is one of the options,” said the Department.

According to reports, the sculptors Andre Prinsloo and Ruhan Janse van Vuuren, secretly added the rabbit to the ear of the 9 metre bronze-plated statue. “The Department of Arts and Culture is of the view that the presence of the rabbit – and indeed the furore this has caused – distracts from the meaning of the statue itself and the great man and hero it seeks to represent,” spokesperson Lisa Combrinck told Rekord.

The duo had reportedly said that the rabbit was a ‘small trademark’ of their work as the Department of Arts and Culture did not allow them to engrave their signatures on the statue trousers. “The Department is not aware of such discussions or decisions. We appointed Koketso Growth to project manage the development of the statue. Koketso Growth in turn appointed the sculptors,” said Combrinck.

However, Combrinck said that none of the statues at the Union Buildings have any direct and blatant acknowledgment of the commissioned artist. “There are ways that artworks can be acknowledged other than signatures. Initially the Prinsloo and Janse Van Vuuren were also recognised in the publicity efforts of Koketso Growth and the Department, at the launch of the statue prior to and on Reconciliation Day, as well as in the immediate ensuing period,” she said.

The artists reportedly selected to carve the rabbit as a representation of the tight deadline they were working under, as a rabbit in Afrikaans is ‘haas’, which also means haste.

According to the artists, the ‘small symbol’ does not take anything away from the statue. “You need a long lens or binoculars to see it. During the moulding process, a lot of people had seen the statue up close and nobody noticed it,” Prinsloo reportedly said.