Italian Consul to Durban, Alessandro Prunas, was instrumental in orchestrating the creation of a statue by Umlazi sculptor Lindelani Ndinisa which was recently unveiled at the International Convention Centre.

Worth about R200,000 and paid for by Italian sponsors thanks to motivation by Alessandro Prunas, the statue is a gift from the city of Carrara to the city of Durban to mark South Africa’s ten years of democracy.

Made of Carrara marble – the Italian source of the finest marble in the world with a history going back as far as Michelangelo – the statue is an impressive towerlike structure and took Lindelani six months to complete. Although he has never worked on marble before, he travelled to Carrara to choose the piece and admits that working on it was a daunting task.