quote:

---

A waving figure of the country's first
post-apartheid president will tower 65 metres
(210 feet) above the city's harbour mouth, if
the planners get the necessary funding.

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quote:

---

The statue has been designed by a local
sculptor, Maureen Quin, and is due to be
completed over 10 to 15 years if the funding is
found.

• The Freedom statue would stand on a
  45-metre plinth at the harbour and show
  Mr Mandela flanked by a small girl.

• An appeal would go around the world for
  guns made redundant as a result of
  peace processes and the weapons would
  be melted down and used in the frame.

• It would be the only statue of its size
  which rotates and visitors would be able
  to ascend from inside to Mr Mandela's
  waist, or perhaps his eyes, for a view of
  the city.

• An annual yacht race could be organised
  to connect the Mandela statue with
  Liberty in New York and the 30-metre
  statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro.

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quote:

---

The statue, part of a project
including a museum, an
African music archive, a
cruise liner terminal, a
conference centre and an
upmarket residential marina,
would help create 9,000 jobs
in tourism in the city, Mr
Madwara's group argues.

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Well, what do you think?

Click!

quote:

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The main reservations to the idea of building a giant statue of freedom in
Port Elizabeth has been that South Africa needs schools, roads, health care
and factories more than it needs another statue. We couldn't agree more.
Everything around the development of Port Elizabeth's freedom statue has to
be leveraged to provide maximum benefit for all stakeholders - including the
jobless, the metro council, Portnet, the province and business.

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That doesn't really lay the reservation to rest. But here's a crazy solution- would it be possible to actually build a school and/or hospital into it, somehow? (Granted, that doesn't solve the bigger problem of staff and tools funding)

[ November 16, 2002: Message edited by: meades ]