Tearful and towering, Mandela steals show at statue unveiling - Times Online

August 30, 2007 Tearful and towering, Mandela steals show at statue unveiling Alan Hamilton He only had to say “Ladies and gentlemen” for the crowd of several thousand in Parliament Square to break into spontaneous applause. We wondered if his next utterance might be: “Where are the Spice Girls?” Nelson Mandela is perhaps the saintliest man alive, and one of the few who can carry off having a statue of himself unveiled during his own lifetime. His lifeless companions opposite the Houses of Parliament were all well under ground before they were immortalised in bronze. Now aged 89, the former President of South Africa is a little uneasy on his feet, needing the guiding hands yesterday of his wife, Graca, and Gordon Brown to help him to his seat at the unveiling ceremony. But the voice remains firm and strong, as does the commitment to a fairer world. He is, even now, a greater presence than his effigy. At times he beamed at the praise heaped upon him by Ken Livingstone, Wendy Woods, widow of the campaigning Johannesburg newspaper editor Donald Woods, whose idea the London statue was, and Lord Attenborough, who headed the statue appeal fund. At other times Mr Mandela looked almost tearful as the Prime Minister called his statue a beacon of hope for the oppressed. Although 9ft tall, the statue, sculpted by the late Ian Walters, is on a low plinth and somehow diminishes the man, despite the hatching effect that tries in vain to capture one of Mr Mandela’s colourful trademark shirts. Churchill, Lloyd George, Abraham Lincoln – all liberators in their own way – tower over him, as does another prominent South African who opposed apartheid in an earlier era, Jan Smuts. The statue is Britain’s gift to the people of South Africa, although they have a bronze Mandela of their own in a Johannesburg square. Before the unveiling, the crowds were shown black-and-white pictures on a big screen of Hugh Gaitskell, in some bygone era, addressing a rally in Trafalgar Square as a reminder that London was the headquarters of the antiapartheid movement in exile. It was not a party political occasion; David Cameron was seen joshing with Tony Benn, and even the Mayor of London managed to refrain from a dig at Westminster City Council for refusing planning permission for the statue to be erected in Trafalgar Square. Mr Mandela recalled how he and Oliver Tambo, later president of the African National Congress, had visited Parliament Square in 1962 and jokingly wondered whether there would ever be a statue of a black man there. Speaking for himself and his wife, who was created a dame the previous evening for her humanitarian work, Mr Mandela said: “We never dreamed we would all be here today. Though this statue is of one man, it should in actual fact symbolise all those who have resisted oppression, especially in my country.” Gordon Brown said of the sculpture: “It sends around the world the most powerful of messages – that no injustice can last forever, that suffering in the cause of freedom will never be in vain.” An even better way of honouring Mr Mandela, the Prime Minister said, would be to push ahead with efforts to eradicate global poverty and killer diseases such as Aids ravaging the African continent. “Nelson Mandela is one of the most courageous and best-loved men of all time. You will be here with us always.” The veteran campaigner, grey haired but still in full charge of his faculties, insisted that his audience attend a party in Hyde Park next summer to celebrate his 90th birthday. He fully intends to be there himself.