Excrement thrown at the statue of British
colonialist Cecil John Rhodes has triggered a wave of protests across
South Africa against ‘racist’ historical figures.
Memorials to South Africa’s colonial past
were defaced by mainly young black protesters as statues of British
monarchs Queen Victoria and King George V were splashed with paint in
the cities of Port Elizabeth and Durban respectively.
Vandals poured paint over Scottish-South African missionary Andrew Murray’s statue in the Western Cape.
War memorials were also defaced. A bronze rider marking the Anglo-Boer War from 1899 to 1902, was toppled from his horse.
Object of anger: This statue of Queen Victoria
outside the Port Elizabeth city library in South Africa is among a
number of memorials to British colonials that have been vandalised
during protests against ‘racist’ figures
A statue of a British soldier lays on the ground after being broken off its base in Port Elizabeth, South Africa
The defaced statue of British mining magnate and
politician, Cecil John Rhodes, is lifted by a crane, from its position
at the University of Cape Town (left), while (right) a chair marks the
spot on the plinth where the decades old bronze statue stood before it
was vandalised
In the latest demonstration, vandals smeared paint the figure of a young Mohandas Gandhi.
Standing in the square in downtown
Johannesburg named for Mahatma Gandhi, the memorial marks the Indian
anti-colonial leader’s time in South Africa, where he formulated the
principle of passive resistance.
The protester, who smudged white paint on Gandhi’s cloak, accused him of being racist during his time in the country.
Founding fathers of Afrikaner nationalism were also targeted.
In Pretoria, the memorial of 19th century
Afrikaner leader Paul Kruger was twice daubed with bright green paint,
while the statue of Marthinus Pretorius, who founded the capital city,
was splashed with reddish brown paint, according to local media reports.
The statue of Louis Botha, the president
of the South African Union in the early 1900s, was smeared with red and
blue paint outside parliament in Cape Town on the same day that the
Rhodes sculpture was removed from its perch overlooking the University
of Cape Town after weeks of student protest.
In the Free State province, a statue of
Boer General Jan Fick was splashed with red paint in the town named
after him in 1883, Ficksburg.
Another statue is cleaned down after being splashed with green paint on Pretoria’s Church Square
Security guards (left) walk past a statue of
former South African statesman and Afrikaner leader Louis Botha, which
has been defaced with red paint outside the South African parliament
building in Cape Town
Several people have been arrested and local authorities have spent thousands of dollars cleaning up the statues.
The opposition party, the Economic Freedom
Fighters, has come out in support of its members who have claimed
responsibility for these acts of vandalism.
It comes days after white solidarity
groups held protests over the removal of a statue of British colonialist
Cecil Rhodes from the University of Cape Town after it was daubed with
excrement.
Members of the university council ordered
that the bronze sculpture be removed after hearing its presence made
black students feel uncomfortable and was seen a symbol of historical
white oppression.
The defaced statue of British colonialist Cecil
Rhodes is tied by straps to a crane before its removal at the University
of Cape Town. It follows weeks of protests at the university over the
symbolism of the statue
The monument has been vandalised in recent weeks. It has not yet been decided where it will be moved
The government backed the move, with
Sandile Memela, the spokesman for the arts and culture ministry, saying
they are working to see if the country can take an ‘official position’
on statues and other colonial symbols.
‘It marks a significant… shift where the
country deals with its ugly past in a positive and constructive way’, he
said to press agency AFP, adding the government did not encourage the
violent removal of statues.
But the decision to move the monument of
Rhodes – a 19th century imperialist who critics say helped pave the way
for apartheid – has sparked protests in itself.
The youth wing of white Afrikaner
solidarity group AfriForum handed a memorandum to parliament in Cape
Town to ‘demand protection’ for their heritage.
The same statue was covered in plastic bags after protests by students and staff at the university in March
The university’s council heard that black students felt uncomfortable because of the bronze monument
While they are not recognised as
supporters of Rhodes, statues of their heroes have been attacked during
the university protests.
A monument of former president Paul Kruger
was splattered with paint, and Afrikaner men, some of them in
quasi-military outfits, demonstrated next to it on Wednesday.
‘The Afrikaner is — from a historical
perspective — increasingly being portrayed as criminals and land
thieves,’ solidary group Afriforum said in a statement.
‘If the heritage of the Afrikaner is not important to Government, our youth members will preserve our own heritage.’
It has not been decided where the statue of Rhodes will end up, although it will likely be held in a museum.
But as tension grow on campuses about the
statues of historical South African figures, Jonathan Jansen – the first
black vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State – denied that
there was a race war coming.
He wrote in South African newspaper The
Times on Thursday: ‘The reason is simple: the overwhelming majority of
South Africans, black and white, believe in a middle path somewhere
between reconciliation and social justice.’
Cecil Rhodes, pictured on the right, in 1896 in Rhodesia with an unknown companion and a black manservant
People look the defaced statue of former South African president Paul Kruger in Church Square, Pretoria
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