Statues at heart of rising racial tensions in South Africa

A national day of dialogue on the future of controversial monuments has been announced by the South African government in a bid to defuse escalating racial tensions around the issue.

Arts and culture minister Nathi Mthethwa revealed the plan during an interview published yesterday by Afrikaans newspaper Beeld in which he admitted the government could have done more to erect statues that represented the new South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994.

While a date for the dialogue later this month has yet to be set, the event's announcement coincided with the removal of the statue of British colonialist Cecil John Rhodes from the University of Cape Town's grounds yesterday afternoon.

On Wednesday night the university’s council ruled that the statue of its founding benefactor would be taken away after nearly a month of protests calling for it to be destroyed, predominately by black students who had defaced it.

Rhodes, born in 1853, was a businessman who made a fortune off the backs of indigenous workers from mining in South Africa.

As well as being the premier of the Cape Colony in 1890 and the founder of Rhodesia, he was responsible for introducing the early enforced racial segregation policies in South Africa through his drafting of the Natives Land Act.

Unapologetic racist

In short, he was an unapologetic racist, and the prominent display of his bust on campus was considered an insult to African students, as well as a reminder of the underrepresentation of black people among the university’s academic body.

The defacement of the Rhodes statue led to copycat acts on numerous other colonial and apartheid-era statues, with the latest one of former prime minister Louis Botha outside of parliament in Cape Town on Wednesday night.

Members of Julius Malema's Economic Freedom Fighters have been arrested in connection with this incident.

Many South Africans believe there should no longer be statues that celebrate significant individuals or events from its colonial and apartheid past. But others see them as part of the country’s white heritage and a reminder of its history, however distasteful.

Retaliation

The defacement of a statue of former South African president

Paul Kruger

in Church Square, Pretoria, prompted members of the Afrikaans community to gather there and warn that retaliation would occur if a symbol of their heritage was taken away.

Afrikaans singer and community representative Steve Hofmeyr said he was aware of English and Afrikaner activists who were waiting to retaliate "the moment this monument or any other monument is removed".

Mr Mthethwa said the government’s attitude and policy towards heritage sites was based on a national policy of reconciliation, nation building and social cohesion, so the planned dialogue would take into account every groups position to plot the way forward.

It remains unclear what the official plan for the Rhodes statue is, but the National Heritage Council has the last say on the matter.