Statues from colonial era causing uproar in South Africa...

South Africa’s University of Cape Town said its council voted in favor of removing a statue of Cecil John Rhodes from its main campus Thursday following a month of student protests about the colonial-era figure. 

 Len Raymond, chairman of the Heritage Association of South Africa,   said  “We have concerns about the safety of the statue and believe that the only way to protect it while Heritage Western Cape is considering our application, will be to temporarily remove it for safekeeping. We will remove the statue tomorrow.”

Rhodes statue in UCT

President Zuma however said removal of the statues will have to be done according to the laws of South Africa as destroying the statues will be problematic if preservations of the history of the country is considered. If the statue is removed, future generations will not know who colonised the country and introduced apartheid therefore students making noise right now are not considering future historians. Rhodes was a British colonialist who seized land in Southern Africa to further what was the British Empire. UCT students threw human excrement on Rhodes’ statue in March as they started protesting. Since then, four other representations of colonial or apartheid figures have been defaced, some of them by members of the Economic Freedom Fighters opposition party. 

Jacob Zuma

Zuma said the debate about colonial statues and apartheid oppression is welcome but the smashing of the statues is not.



What needs to be done is discuss the location of these artifacts so they can be preserved for the future generation.