The
historic and immensely symbolic event of pulling down Rhodes’ statue at the
Green Mile bottom of Jammie Steps, UCT. You will feel the relief on the faces
of the protesters-as many lash out at the statue with sticks and stones, others
reach up to deal it torrents of slaps. Rhodes’ persecution didn’t end there.
The statue was blindfolded and red liquid poured on it like blood ritual. And
listening to the songs and jubilation you will think that the final bastion of
Apartheid just came down.
As
preparations were made to remove the statue of British colonialist Cecil Rhodes from the
University of Cape Town on Thursday, white groups launched
protests to protect what they see as their heritage.
South Africa’s oldest university voted on Wednesday to
remove the monument from its campus after a month of student protests against a perceived symbol of
historical white oppression.
On
Thursday morning, the youth wing of white Afrikaner solidarity group AfriForum
handed a memorandum to parliament in Cape Town to “demand protection” for their
heritage.
The
Afrikaners are descendants of mainly Dutch settlers from the 17th and 18th
centuries and dominated South Africa’s white-minority government before the end
of apartheid in 1994.
They
are no supporters of Rhodes, who was on the British side in the Anglo-Boer war at
the beginning of the 20th century, but have seen statues of their own heroes
come under attack in the wake of the university protests.
Afrikaner
men, some of them in quasi-military outfits, demonstrated on Wednesday at the
statue in Pretoria of former president Paul Kruger – which had been splattered
with paint – and at the monument to the leader of the first settlers, Jan van
Riebeeck, in Cape Town.
“The
Afrikaner is – from a historical perspective – increasingly being portrayed as
criminals and land thieves,” AfriForum said in a statement.
“But
apartheid freedom fighters are certainly not the untainted heroes Government is
making them out to be.
“If
the heritage of the Afrikaner is not important to Government, our youth members
will preserve our own heritage.”
Their
attitude is in contrast to that of the council of the University of Cape Town,
which voted to remove Rhodes after accepting his statue made black students
uncomfortable on campus.
The
imposing bronze statue of a brooding Rhodes was due to come down later on
Thursday. A decision on its final destination is yet to be made, but it is
likely to end up in a museum.
Its
disappearance is unlikely to end the debate over the pace of racial
transformation, which goes beyond symbols to encompass economic and social
divisions 21 years after the end of apartheid.
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