Mandela 'knew of artwork plan'
12/07/2005 22:49  - (SA)  

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Yvonne Beyers, Beeld

Johannesburg - Apparently, former president Nelson Mandela had been aware of a proposal to buy a machine that would copy his signature on his artworks and allegedly approved of the plan.

In a 321-page sworn statement submitted to the Johannesburg High Court on Friday, Ismail Ayob, a former confidant and legal advisor of the former president, claims Mandela "consented to" a proposal to have a machine copy his signature on his artworks since "it would have claimed a considerable amount of (his) scarce time to autograph every copy personally".

The proposal apparently was made either by Ross Calder, who sold and marketed Mandela's art until recently, or Anthony Glass from Union Alliance Media.

"When the proposal had been made to copy (Mandela's) signature by way of a machine, he was not against this," read Ayob's statement.

Ayob also said he had compiled three wills and a range of official funeral arrangements on Mandela's behalf, something Mandela earlier said Ayob refused to do.

Content of wills erased for court

The wills, which had been signed by Mandela, had been submitted to the court together with Ayob's statement, but due to their confidential nature, the content had been erased.

According to Ayob, he could not understand why Mandela lodged an urgent appeal with the court that he (Ayob) should be relieved from his position as trustee of three of Mandela's trusts.

He already had offered his resignation as trustee of the Nelson Mandela Trust and the NRM Family Trust earlier and was no longer a trustee of the Mandela Trust.

Apologised to Mandela

He also denied he had ever copied Mandela's signature, had been involved in the marketing, distribution or selling of Mandela's autographed artworks or had any financial gain in this regard.

In contrast with the contentious allegations and hefty denial contained in Ayob's statement, he apologised to the former president and asked for his forgiveness in a letter submitted in conjunction with his statement to the court.

"Once more, the author (Ayob) offers his total, undeserved and unconditional apology to Madiba for the pain and suffering which had been caused and hopes that he will find it in his generous heart to forgive the author (Ayob)..."

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