As the world waits for news of Nelson Mandela, Cape Town is continuing with its planned, year-long celebration for him.
|||Cape Town - As the world waits for news of Nelson Mandela, the City of Cape Town is continuing with its planned, year-long celebration for him.
The usually dour Civic Centre has been plastered with a huge artwork of Madiba and on Sunday, the Nelson Mandela Legacy Exhibition will open on the building’s concourse.
Banners are flying from lamp posts throughout the city.
In January, mayor Patricia de Lille announced that 2013 would officially be known as the year that honoured Mandela.
She said: “The qualities that he personally brought to the hard tasks of achieving our democracy, of creating our constitution, establishing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, fostering education and combating HIV and Aids are qualities that the City of Cape Town is committed to emulating.”
She said Cape Town enjoyed a “special relationship” with Mandela, particularly because he spent time in prison here, first on Robben Island, then at Pollsmoor and at Victor Verster prison in Paarl.
He also gave his inaugural address as a free man, in 1990, from the City Hall on the Grand Parade.
This is one of the sites being mooted by various city council departments for a statue in his honour.
Sunday’s exhibition, which includes photographs of the iconic statesman by Benny Gool and Adil Bradlow, is expected to be seen by about 25 000 school pupils.
There will also be focus group discussions about Mandela’s legacy, and contributions from this will be used to complete the city’s new value statement - the City of Cape Town pledge.
The imposing Civic Centre artwork was conceived by Abie Collins and Alberic Vollmer of Dreamfuel Media.
The work was drawn by Linsey Levendall.
It was first mapped out on A3-sized paper before it was upscaled and cut into 660 separate pieces for the building’s windows.
It took a team of abseilers four days to put all the pieces of the Madiba creation into place.
anel.lewis@inl.co.za
Cape Argus
