Mandela statue to go up in Trafalgar Square

Friends of Nelson Mandela will launch a fundraising campaign today to pay for a statue of the anti-apartheid leader to be erected in Trafalgar Square.

The plan to raise about £400,000 is being led by prominent supporters of the former South African president, including Wendy Woods, the widow of the anti-apartheid journalist Donald Woods; Lord Attenborough, the director of the film Cry Freedom; and the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, who will host the fundraising drive at City Hall in London today.

The 9ft sculpture of Mr Mandela in full speech-making flow will be placed on the pedestrianised north side of the square, a short distance from South Africa House where protests against his imprisonment were staged during the apartheid years. Mr Mandela later described these supporters as the "legion of freedom fighters in the darkest moments".

Mrs Woods said: "Donald saw the statue as a tribute from the people of Britain to the liberated people of South Africa. It will also represent a salute to a global figure in a global setting."

Mr Livingstone, who will donate a six-foot plinth for the statue, said: "The special relationship Mandela developed with the British people through the long years of struggle against apartheid makes it absolutely fitting that his role in world history should be commemorated in one of the most important and symbolic public spaces in London."

The sculpture is the work of Ian Walters, who also created a bust of Mandela for the Royal Festival Hall on London's South Bank.