Durban - THE ANC in eThekwini has moved a step closer to installing the massive bronze statues of Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo at the Durban City Hall precinct.
A resolution was passed at the city’s executive committee meeting on Tuesday to spend R1 million on installing the statues.
The matter, which has been ongoing for the past few weeks and faced stiff resistance from opposition parties, went down to a vote as the opposition parties refused to give their blessing for the installation to go ahead.
The vote was evenly split, four each, between the ANC and opposition parties that include the DA and the IFP who voted against the project. Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda cast the deciding vote in favour as the chair. The EFF and the ABC were absent from the meeting.
This means the exco will now send a recommendation to council today that it recommends spending R1m to install the statues.
Opposition parties have questioned why the council has to spend an additional R1m to install the statues and argue that the money should have been factored in when the costing for the statues was first done. The city has already paid about R11m each for the 9m bronze statues.
In addition, they have argued against the project as they said it was not representative of society and it can’t be that only ANC leaders are honoured through such projects.
ANC councillor Zama Sokhabase pleaded with the opposition parties during the discussion to support the approval of the funding, saying the statues were already in Durban and the council should install them and any remaining issues of concern should be discussed after the installation.
The sentiments were echoed by Kaunda, who said the project was approved years ago by a different council and all that remained was for this current term of council to finalise its implementation.
“If we do not approve this item (to approve an additional R1m) what are we saying, are we saying that we are flushing the R22 million of ratepayers’ money down the drain? I cannot be a mayor of a municipality that flushes public money down the drain,” said Kaunda.
Kaunda said the statues should have been installed the moment they arrived and there was a real risk if the matter was further delayed.
“We were advised that they should be installed immediately,” warning that keeping them in storage increased the risk they could be damaged.
“The statues are done, there is nothing that can be done to change that, all that remains for us to do is to install them,” said Kaunda.
IFP councillor Mdu Nkosi, who left the meeting early due to a family engagement, said the IFP was against the item and would elaborate further during the council meeting today.
DA councillor Thabani Mthethwa said the issue was not just about these statues, but about how to make such matters more representative of society as a whole.
He said for example in the renaming, the names that represent the past should not be erased, no matter how ugly that past is, as it presents an opportunity for children to learn about the country’s painful past.