Durban in jumbo court snub

THE eThekwini council has failed to serve opposing papers in a brewing court battle with the legal team representing artist Andries Botha, whose elephant trio in the Warwick Avenue Triangle has been embroiled in controversy since 2010.

Botha was poised to complete the installation as part of the city’s World Cup upgrade when an ANC official, widely believed to be the late John Mchunu, eThekwini regional ANC chairman, demanded the project be abandoned.

It was alleged that the elephants too closely resembled the logo of the IFP.

Speaker for the eThekwini Municipality, Logie Naidoo, referred the Sunday Tribune to city manager S’bu Sithole for comment yesterday, but he said he was “enjoying family time” and would comment later. Further attempts to elicit comment met with no success.

Council was given until February 3 to file the papers. It failed to comply, but no reason has been given for withholding the documentation.

Botha decided to take the matter to court last year after all attempts to get the project back on track had failed.

He is demanding that the city respect the integrity of the artwork, and not destroy or attempt to alter it in any way.

The artist turned down a suggestion by the council that he remove two elephants and add other animals to represent the Big Five.

Botha told the Tribune he had been led to believe the council would resolve the issue amicably after the local government elections, but nothing had happened.

Eric Appelgren, local head of international and governance relations, and the man who organised the commissioning of the artwork, has consistently refused to involve himself in sorting out the debacle.

“It is an issue of principle,” said Botha of the pending court case. “Money is not the issue here, although the workers who lost their jobs must be remunerated. We will only take what is due to us. Any money the court might award us over and above that amount will be used to benefit struggling artists.”

When work on the elephants came to a standstill, Botha’s six assistants found themselves out of a job. The team had been earning R4 500 a day. Botha is claiming the balance of payments on the elephants, R250 000 lost income for his team, and “stand-down” pay for all the months the dispute has dragged on.

Lawyer Toby Orford, representing Botha, said the legal matter was currently “an application within an application”. The main court case had been suspended while a tussle was under way to command eThekwini to hand over the outstanding documents.

“We were given some paperwork, but not all of it. Exco reportedly passed two resolutions to remove the elephants and several reports were compiled to that effect. One or more of them was written by former city manager Mike Sutcliffe. The council is opposing our demands and they will have to give their reasons to the court.”

Orford said that he had secured a March 20 court date for an application to compel eThekwini to comply.

“We are pressing ahead steadily. When this matter has been dealt with we will proceed with the main application.”

The lawyer said the elephants were currently in “a dismal state” and surrounded by a cesspit of human waste and other debris.

He also made reference to the King Shaka installation at King Shaka International Airport. This series of sculptures was disturbed shortly after the airport opened in 2009, when King Goodwill Zwelethini objected to Botha’s depiction of King Shaka, referring to it as being “like a herd boy”.

King Shaka was removed, but the statues of Nguni cattle remain. They are steadily being eclipsed by the encroachment of commercial kiosks.

When the Tribune visited the airport on Friday, the once-proud cattle were strangely out of place in their altered setting.

“It is another blatant breach of an artist’s moral rights and the integrity of his creation,” said Orford. “In his State of the Nation address this week the president (Jacob Zuma) spoke about being all in favour of heritage, but it seems he has adopted a very narrow view of what art and culture is. It is nostalgic and old-fashioned.

“Teaching people to appreciate art is a process, and Andries Botha has been brave enough to take a stand. His stance is that in time people will learn.

“We may make mistakes, but we need to recognise that a work of art has a legal status that is different from any other utilitarian object.”