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'Madiba art' causes trouble
08/04/2005 09:45 - (SA)
Johannesburg - The Nelson Mandela Children's Fund (NMCF) on Thursday denied being the beneficiary of any money-making art schemes, having never accepted participating in the so-called Madiba Art Project.
"The NMCF has neither record of having accepted participating in such a scheme nor received funds arising out of sales of such paintings. The project was presented to us initially but was declined," the fund's chief executive officer Sibongile Mkhabela said in a statement.
This follows reports in the Sunday Independent and Noseweek magazine that Mandela's former lawyer, Ismail Ayob, allegedly used the former president's name to sell works of art without his consent.
Ayob denied personally benefiting from anything involving marketing the Mandela name, the Sunday Independent reported.
If money was missing from the foundation, this could not be linked to him because a forensic audit had found everything in order at the foundation when he left it, the report said.
No endorsement from Mandela
In January 2005 the Madiba Art Extravaganza, launched in Davos, Switzerland, was reported by Noseweek magazine to have pushed Mandela to take legal action against his former lawyer.
The NMCF "strongly objected" to the use of the fund's name and material to advertise abroad, Mkhabela said.
Madiba Art did not have the support or endorsement of Mandela, Noseweek quoted Nelson Mandela Foundation chief executive John Samuel as saying.
The catalogue produced by Ayob and associate Ross Calder, claiming a link to Nelson Mandela, was "grossly misleading" and "patently a lie", Samuel reportedly said.
Samuel also added that Nelson Mandela had taken a decision to "serve papers" on Ayob requesting full accounts covering the entire period that Ayob had managed Mandela's financial affairs.
A spokesperson for the NMCF, Tumi Mdwaba, could not confirm that any legal action against Ayob was pending as claimed by the headline of the Sunday Independent.
"(Mandela's lawyer George) Bizos is still working on that case," Mdwaba said.
- SAPA
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South Africa
