Mandela signature 'imitation'

2005-06-18 10:14

Yvonne Beyers

Johannesburg - Former president Nelson Mandela's signature has been imitated on some of his works of art, says a forensic handwriting expert.

According to the expert's report, which was deposited with the Johannesburg Supreme Court this week, Mandela's signature on some of the prints in his Struggle series, as well as on prints of other works of art, "were traced from common sample signatures".

Paul Westwood, a forensic handwriting expert from Australia, said in his report that the similarities in the signatures on Mandela's works of art "are visible immediately" and that it is "highly unlikely that it occurred by accident" as the signatures of the same person normally "differ" slightly because of "natural variation".

"The only reasonable assumption that can be made regarding the similarities in the form of the signatures is that the signatures are tracings based on a common model.

Signature machine

"The model signatures that were used for each of the groups (of works of art) could be one of the signatures in the group or another signature."

According to an affidavit by Charl Donavan Saunders, a former employee of the Concept Group that marketed and sold former president's artworks, a senior employee of the company undertook research in 2001 regarding a machine that could imitate signatures.

"I understood that the machine was of importance for the 'Touch of Mandela' art project and that it would have been used to reproduce signatures."

"I now understand that the purchase of the signature machine was imperative to ensure the further production (of Mandela's signed works of art) as there was concern about Mr Mandela?s health.

"The project team discussed the possibility that the project could fail if Mr Mandela died before a substantial number of prints had been produced."

Want audited financial statements

According to Saunders, the machine would have been imported from overseas and he also had to investigate the cost of the transaction.

It is expected Mandela's legal team will ask in the Johannesburg Supreme Court in August this year that Ismail Ayob, his former attorney, and Ross Calder, head of the 'Touch of Mandela' project, be ordered to provide audited financial statements of their companies as they allegedly sold works of art to the value of hundreds of thousands of rands with a signature on them that was not Mandela's.

The former president will also ask the court to declare null and void an allegedly agreement that he entered into in 2001 in which he signed away his name and rights in Ayob's favour.

- Beeld