People go ape over Madiba T-shirt 'joke'

[caption id="attachment_34241" align="alignright" width="300"] POOR TASTE: The offensive picture that caused an uproar on social networks yesterday[/caption]

A DESPATCH resident's sense of humour – and his cement baboon dressed in a Madiba T-shirt – caused an uproar on social networks yesterday.

Bay municipal spokesman Kupido Baron posted a picture on Facebook of the exhibition in Andre Bothma's front garden, which included the baboon statue decked out in sunglasses and a yellow T-shirt with the name and picture of Nelson Mandela printed on the front.

Shocked Facebook users were quick to react.

Pamela Zamamiya Matiso wrote: "OMW some people are still living in the 60's neh? #Shocked4Days."

Francois Rank said: "Please tell me you are joking."

Vuvu Kula fumed: "Angry is not even the word to describe how I'm feeling right now!!"

Nelson Mandela Bay regional ANC chairman Chippa Ngcolomba said: "Everyone should relax about the matter.

"We know people are driven by emotion and this could get out of hand very quickly, but we want people to calm down so that we can approach the situation rationally."

He said Bothma, of Magnolia Crescent in Heuwelkruin, may have acted without realising the implications.

"We don't want to jump the gun. We would like to speak with the man himself to clarify everything.

"This is definitely a situation that requires urgent attention. We don't want something like this creating a divide among the people of our metro."

Bothma, 50, said yesterday: "We stopped at a traffic light in Port Elizabeth [just before the elections] and some guys shoved a handful of these T-shirts through our window.

"They didn't fit me, and I gave some of them away. The last one I decided to put on the baboon – not for any specific reason, just because I wanted to." His beautiful garden is also home to two replicas of Michelangelo's David statue – one dressed in a rugby jersey and shorts, and the other, adorned with a wig, and wearing a dress and holding a handbag.

After hearing about the furore the T-shirt-bedecked baboon had sparked, Bothma removed it and dressed the baboon in a numbered vest.

"I change the baboon's shirt regularly. When it's rugby season, he often wears a Sharks or Bulls jersey.

"This Nelson Mandela T-shirt is just another part of his wardrobe. I didn't mean anything racist by it. If some people don't have a sense of humour, that's their problem."

Bothma even put on the T-shirt, that was a few sizes too small, for a few laughs.

He said Madiba's birthday usually formed part of a series of celebrations in their home, as they had family members who celebrated birthdays days before and after his.

"It's all part of the fun we have as a family. We are celebrating already. We might as well celebrate our country's greatest leader, too."

Baron, who heard about Bothma's baboon shortly after the elections, said: "If the man meant it as a joke, it was in very bad taste." - Riaan Marais