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Durban’s King Shaka still under wraps two years later, 14 years after ‘herd boy’ chopped down

King Shaka peers from behind his scaffold and shadecloth screen. (Photo: Tony Carnie)

8 Sep 2024

King Shaka’s latest, state-funded statue outside King Shaka International Airport in Durban remains shrouded from public view by scaffolding and sheets of wind-tattered black shade cloth.

Great King Shaka had an airport named after him … ee-eye, ee-eye-oh

And at that airport he had a statue … but, oh, oh, oh, you know, that statue was just too small and seemingly depicted the world-famous Zulu warrior king as a mere “herd boy”.

So, by royal decree, it was chopped down with an angle grinder and carted away to a basement storage room 14 years ago, with instructions that a bigger and fiercer version was required.

Finally, after much delay, it came to pass that a second statue was installed on a plinth outside King Shaka International Airport in Durban in August 2022.

Complete with bigger spear, bigger shield and a very big king.

It’s roughly four times higher than the original (the king himself is 6.5m high, mounted on a plinth around 6m high)

But … more than 24 months down the line, poor King Shaka’s latest, state-funded statue remains shrouded from public view by scaffolding and sheets of wind-tattered black shade cloth – with no indication of when he will be unveiled (nor who will repair the king’s assegai shaft, which has been bent somewhat during the scaffolding and concealment operations).

What’s going on here?

“Don’t ask us… please speak to the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Sport, Arts and Culture” the Airports Company of South Africa (Acsa) said in a brisk response to Daily Maverick’s questions about the latest chapter in the Shaka statues’ saga.

It started just before the Soccer World Cup in 2010 when the late King Goodwill Zwelithini and former President Jacob Zuma unveiled a 3m-high bronze sculpture of King Shaka close to the main airport entrance.

king shaka statue news clipping A newspaper clipping from 2010 with a photograph of former president Jacob Zuma and the late King Goodwill Zwelithini at the first unveiling ceremony. (Source: Andries Botha)

Designed by Durban artist Andries Botha, the bronzed warrior king was positioned amid four Nguni cattle, with his royal shield and assegai resting nearby. Botha says he deliberately wanted to avoid mimicking previous British artistic depictions of the king dating back to 1824.

Though his design was approved by Zuma – according to Botha – it did not go down well with the late King Goodwill and fellow members of the Zulu royal family.

king shaka statue 2010 King Shaka stands between two Nguni cattle outside Durban’s new international airport in 2010. (Image source: Andries Botha)

king shaka statue nguni cattle Andries Botha’s Nguni bull and cow statue (with the royal centrepiece removed) earlier this month. (Photo: Tony Carnie)

king shaka statue basement The king’s statue is lowered before being dumped in a basement. (Image source: Andries Botha website)

king shaka statue The first Andries Botha version of King Shaka’s statue. (Image source: Andries Botha)

A message soon came down from on high, that the famous king’s sculpted representation (believed to have cost at least R3-million) was not sufficiently fierce or large enough. There were also complaints that he resembled a “herd boy”.

Take it down. That was that.

And so it was that a second artist, Karkloof-based sculptor Peter Hall, was subsequently commissioned to design a new statue.

We were not able to contact Hall for his comments, but Kim Goodwin (the artist and foundryman who cast both the first and second Shaka statues in bronze at his foundry in Lidgetton) said most of the work on the second statue was completed by the end of 2019. Thereafter, it sat in his back yard for quite some time, awaiting further approvals from the royal family and KZN Department of Sport, Arts and Culture.

Kim Goodwin and foundry worker Chris Biyela take a break during construction of the king's head, back in 2018. (Image: Supplied)

At a later stage, Hall and Goodwin were asked to make some minor modifications to the king’s feathered headdress. Then, in mid-2022 they came under sudden pressure to get the statue to Durban, pronto.

“I spent almost five years working on both those statues. With the second statue it was rush and stop, rush and stop,” he said, noting that a last-minute hitch cropped up when a Pinetown subcontractor manufacturing the stainless steel statue base departed the country unexpectedly – leaving the king pretty much in mid-air.

Fortunately, he said, landscape artist Lucas Uys came to the rescue with a revised plan to build a new concrete plinth incorporating new marble and granite shields.

king shaka statue news clipping Sculptor Peter Hall stands beneath a ‘positive’ cast of the lower section of the second statue in 2015. (Photo: Kim Goodwin)

“We really scrambled to meet the September 2022 deadline (to have the statue erected)… and then – nothing happened.”

(Notably, King Goodwill died in March 2021 and the new King Misuzulu Sinqobile kaZwelithini was crowned in August 2022, followed by a formal certificate ceremony at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban two months later).

Following the unveiling delays, the new Shaka statue was shrouded by a layer of white cloth. But within a month, the cloth was shredded by strong winds and it was later concealed behind scaffolding and shade cloth.

“I have since snuck under the shade cloth and seen that the main shaft of the king’s assegai is now bent, probably when the scaffolding was erected. So that will have to be fixed to avoid more controversy before it’s unveiled,” said Goodwin.

“It took so much time and effort from me and my staff to make the statue, but it could have been put up five years ago. It’s beautiful. It’s grand. It’s something people will be proud of… but there it stands today, still unveiled two years after we put it up.”

“Aggh, I’m pretty much over it now,” said Goodwin, who closed down his Lidgetton foundry in 2021 and has since moved to the Dargle area to “live off the grid”.

Goodwin, who confirmed that he was paid nearly R3.5-million for his contributions to the project, estimated that the total cost of the second statue came to at least R8-million (and possibly double that figure when considering the additional costs of design, sculpting, landscaping, building a new plinth and other ancillary expenses).

king shaka statue peter hall Sculptor Peter Hall inspects progress on the second Shaka statue in 2018. (Photo: Kim Goodwin)

On 4 September, Daily Maverick asked the KZN Department of Sport, Arts and Culture for a full costs breakdown, but no response has been received yet.

“I’m not sure that most people understand or appreciate just what is involved in making a 6.5m-high bronze statue,” said Goodwin, noting that he had spent almost five years manufacturing the original Andries Botha statue and subsequent statue by Peter Hall.

Explaining some of the complex technology and manufacturing processes, Goodwin said that once the artistic design was completed on paper, a sculptor would produce a scaled-down 1:12 maquette version of a statue in plasticine or clay.

Thereafter, using 3D printing technology, the miniature sculpture was scaled up to produce a “positive” version from foam material and the rough edges further refined with wax or plasticine.

To cast the components of the statue, Goodwin uses silicon rubber moulds to produce multiple “negative” impressions of the various components (each slightly larger than a standard 30cm ruler).

Bronze is then heated at temperatures exceeding 1,000℃ to create numerous castings using heat-resistant ceramic shells that each take up to 10 days to produce.

The resulting “jigsaw puzzle” of multiple bronze components then has to be assembled painstakingly and welded together. After that, the components are ground or filed down to smooth off the welding joints.

Just to complicate things a bit, the sculpture has to be balanced to take account of the fact that it has been designed with the warrior king in a classic contrapposto position (placing most of his weight on one leg).

King Shaka peers from behind his scaffold and shade cloth screen. (Photo: Tony Carnie)

Responding to written questions from Daily Maverick, Acsa gave no indication of when the new statue might be unveiled.

“The commissioning and installation of the statue was done by the KZN Department of Sport, Arts and Culture. Acsa did not incur any costs.

“Acsa aligned with the province on a prominent location that would serve as an attraction for our airport users and the broader local community, and not in conflict with the airport Master Plan. Once the statue has been officially unveiled, Acsa will provide maintenance support to ensure general upkeep of the statue.”

So far, the provincial Department of Sport, Arts and Culture has not responded to requests for comment. DM

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