Vilifying Rhodes helps nothing

JUDGING by the many letters and articles appearing in the media singing the praises of Cecil John Rhodes amid claims of how much he did for South Africa, it becomes clear that these people are inherent old-school racists whose colonial mentality has been handed down from generation to generation.

Rhodes built South Africa on the backs of black South African labourers who were no more than slaves. Not much has changed. Today, as then, every brick that’s laid, every trench that’s dug, every building that goes up, every house that’s built, every road, every bridge is built on the backs of cheap black South African labour. This is the legacy left to black South Africans by Rhodes. Cheap black labour sold to a gullible public under the guise of job creation.

To expect a black student to look up to an effigy of Rhodes with respect and admiration is expecting too much, given the history of colonialism which was driven in part by Rhodes and which tore this country to pieces.

Rhodes saw black labour as fodder to feed his dream of an all consuming British Empire. The wealth that has left this country in precious metals and cash over the past 120 years, which started with Rhodes, can never be measured. This wealth would have changed the destiny of South Africa and Africa had it remained on African soil. Instead it lined the pockets of a handful of white megalomaniacs with one foot in Africa and the other firmly in England.

Vilifying and demonising Cecil John Rhodes, however, helps nothing. What’s done is done and history cannot be changed. However, understanding how black students feel about Rhodes would go a long way towards healing the deep wounds left behind by the ghost of Rhodes who sits peering over his subjects on the UCT campus in the form of this controversial statue.

Moving the statue to a more suitable home is beyond debate – it’s a must. COLIN BOSMAN Newlands