The Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund (NMCF) on Thursday denied being the beneficiary of any money-making art schemes, having never accepted participating in the so-called Madiba Art Project.
”The NMCF has neither record of having accepted participating in such a scheme nor received funds arising out of sales of such paintings. The project was presented to us initially but was declined,” the fund’s CEO, Sibongile Mkhabela, said in a statement.
This follows reports in the Sunday Independent and noseweek magazine that Mandela’s former lawyer, Ismail Ayob, allegedly used the former president’s name to sell works of art without his consent.
Ayob has denied personally benefiting from anything involving marketing the Mandela name, the Sunday Independent reported.
If money is missing from the foundation, this cannot be linked to him because a forensic audit found everything in order at the foundation when he left it, the report said.
In January 2005, the Madiba Art Extravaganza, launched in Davos, Switzerland, was reported by noseweek magazine to have pushed Mandela to take legal action against his former lawyer.
The NMCF ”strongly objected” to the use of the fund’s name and material to advertise abroad, Mkhabela said.
Madiba Art did not have the support or endorsement of Mandela, noseweek quoted Nelson Mandela Foundation chief executive John Samuel as saying.
The catalogue produced by Ayob and associate Ross Calder, claiming a link to Mandela, was ”grossly misleading” and ”patently a lie”, Samuel reportedly said.
Samuel also added that Mandela took a decision to ”serve papers” on Ayob requesting full accounts covering the entire period that Ayob had managed the former president’s financial affairs.
A spokesperson for the NMCF, Tumi Mdwaba, could not confirm that any legal action against Ayob is pending as claimed by the headline of the Sunday Independent.
”[Mandela’s lawyer George] Bizos is still working on that case,” Mdwaba said. — Sapa