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Mandela man mum on art row
15/08/2003 18:56 - (SA)
Donwald Pressly
Cape Town - Former president Nelson Mandela's lawyer Ismail Ayob has answered some questions about an lleged art scam - but carefully avoided some key questions about ownership of a company involved.
I-Net Bridge put questions to Ayob following stories in the Sunday
Times as well as Noseweek - an irregular news publication run by former
Sunday Times journalist Martin Welz - in which a detailed history of
the alleged scam is entitled: "The great Mandela Art Row".
The stories follow a failed bid by a company called the Concept
Group which wanted to retrieve R13m it had paid in licence
fees and advance royalty payment to Magnifique Investment and Holdings
which is linked to Ayob - for the exclusive right to reproduce and
market a series of "Mandela" drawings of hands.
Liquidators of Concept - which apparently had put more than their
market capitalisation into the project - tried to retrieve the money
but Ayob produced a copy of an agreement with its lawyers of which the
liquidators had not been aware. The claim was then dropped.
Ayob, who attended briefings in parliament this week on petroleum
legislation, when approached to answer questions on the alleged scam
following this week's noseweek piece, insisted on written replies to
questions emailed to him.
In response to a question about who were the shareholders of
Magnifique, he said: "The money paid has always been held in the name
of Magnifique Investment and Holding (Pty) Ltd."
In reply to a question as to whom the shareholders were now and
what percentage of the shares they each hold, he said:
"The only shareholders at the time of the signing of the agreement
right up to date are the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, the Nelson
Mandela Foundation and the Mandela Trust." He did not provide a
breakdown of the percentage.
In reply to questions about how much of the 13 million rand, if
anything, has been paid to the Mandela Children's Fund and the Mandela
Foundation, with regards to when it was paid over, and by whom, he said
South African Revenue Services will first be paid all tax due to it and
the shareholders of Magnifique will thereafter be paid the total
balance. He said he himself "has only been paid professional fees".
Asked if the official written permission was obtained of the
Mandela Foundation and of the department of trade and industry to use
former President Mandela's name in marketing the artworks, as is
required by law, he replied: "All residual rights to the Mandela name
and image and works belong to President Mandela or are held on his
behalf accordingly no permission is required from any government
department."
Noseweek said the drawings weren't those of Mandela - but those of
artist Hugh McCallum. Ayob said they were drawn by "Madiba".
He noted that President Mandela "has at all times been kept fully
informed of each step and no action was taken without his prior
approval, from the time when the initial proposal was submitted to
date".
- I-Net Bridge (Business)
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