A new steel statue will rise outside the nation’s presidential offices in his honor of former President Nelson Mandela; behind a few opaque screens workers have been welding together a 30-foot-tall likeness of South Africa’s anti-apartheid leader.
The statue will remain covered until a public unveiling on Monday, a day after his official state funeral in his tribal home of Qunu. The statue was funded by the South African government and is being erected by a private engineering company.
Once unveiled, the statue will stand directly in front of The Union Buildings, where Mandela served as president. Comparisons are inevitable to the tall statue of Mandela on display at Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton.