The sculptors, Andre Prinsloo and Ruhan Janse van Vuuren, said they had added the rabbit to the statue after the department refused to allow them to engrave their signatures on the trousers of the statue, South Africa's Beeld newspaper reported.
They said it also represented the tight deadline they work under.
"The time factor was big and at times we had to work hard," Mr Prinsloo is quoted as saying.
He said the "small symbol" was hidden in the ear and it did not take anything away from the statue.
"You need a long lens or binoculars to see it," he said.
"During the moulding process a lot of people had seen the statue up close and nobody noticed it."
Mr Mogodiri said the sculptors had never asked for permission to put their signatures on the statue, and the government was "taken aback" by their claim that permission had been denied.
"Nothing of that sort happened. If a request was made, we would have considered it," he said.
Mr Mandela died on 5 December after battling a recurring lung infection.
英国广播公司1月23日报道,南非政府要求雕塑家移除“暗藏”在南非前总统曼德拉雕像耳朵中的铜兔。
南非文化部发言人莫葛莫斯·莫葛迪瑞说,“因为曼德耳朵上拉从来没有过一只兔子,我们认为这种做法是不合适的。”
“我们想让人把雕像看作希望的象征,而不是兔子一类的东西。”
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