A South African version of the iconic American landmark, Mt Rushmore, is planned for Cape Town.
Mt Rushmore, a mountain in South Dakota, has the faces of American Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt, carved into it. The carving of the faces, which stand 18m high, was completed in 1941, having taken 14 years.
Zizi Kodwa, the new minister of arts and culture, announced this week that the government was looking into the feasibility of carving the faces of iconic South Africans into the side of Table Mountain.
Kodwa said that talks were already under way with both the Western Cape and Cape Town governments and that construction was likely to start sometime towards the end of the year.
Payola Oldsfir, a spokesperson for the Western Cape provincial government, said that it was virtually certain that three of the four faces to be carved into the granite of Table Mountain would be those of Nelson Mandela, Albert Luthuli, and Helen Zille. The decision around the fourth face to be featured in the new national landmark would be put to a public vote. Recent polls showed that veteran South African comedian Leon Schuster was one of the frontrunners.
Said Oldsfir: ‘Cape Town has been a major tourist destination for many years and we believe that this new monument will only boost interest in our city and country. People will come from all over the world to see this feat of South African ingenuity and artistry.’
[Image: Jean van der Meulen from Pixabay]