![\"\"](\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/TowerofLight.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nA 27-storey glass tower that will serve as a monument and interactive museum to the late Nelson Mandela has won a design competition set up by Nelson Mandela Bay in the city of Port Elizabeth.<\/p>\n
The city opened a competition to all South Africans to design a new precinct for Nelson Mandela Bay, with a consortium including Makeka Design Lab, Gregg Scott and partners, M&C Saatchi and Abel, and prominent PE businessman Khusta Jack winning the day with the “Tower of Light”.<\/p>\n
The new precinct would honour Madiba\u2019s contribution to South Africa, as well as elevate the city\u2019s status as a hub for socio-economic transformation, tourism and employment opportunities.<\/p>\n
According to Makeka Design’s Mokena Makeka, the concept was to create a “towering beacon of light that spoke to the light that Mandela brought to the world, a light that resides within all of humanity”.<\/p>\n
“We have positioned the landmark as crucial generator of economic growth and access to new public assets, by catalysing a reimagined waterfront neighbourhood for the citizens of Nelson Mandela Bay and the world,” he said.<\/p>\n
The monumental Nelson Mandela Bay Tower of Light is an interactive museum, with each of the 27-storeys marking a year that Nelson Mandela spent in prison. It will take visitors on a ‘multisensory journey’ through the life and times of Madibaa, culminating in a reflective tower on the top floor that includes a chrome statue of the former president.<\/p>\n