Academics discuss legacy, statue of Rhodes at UCT
Madiba made mistake creating Mandela Rhodes Trust – ‘a monstrous marriage’
THE MERGER of the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Cecil John Rhodes Trust was “a monstrous marriage” according to university academics at a debate held to discuss Cecil John Rhodes’s legacy.
Rhodes died on March 26, 1902 in his cottage in Muizenberg.
The public debate was held at the Centre for the Book yesterday, following a call by UCT students to remove the Rhodes statue on the campus.
It was chaired by University of Johannesburg Professor Chris Landsberg from SA Research Chairs initiative and chairman of the African Diplomacy on Foreign Policy. He was joined by Emeritus Professor Paul Maylam from Rhodes University and Professor Adekeye Adebajo of the Centre for Conflict Resolution.
Maylam, author of
said for years South Africans had largely forgotten Rhodes – “unlike Zimbabwe which has removed every street name and any symbols named after him”.
Maylam said the country focused so much on cutting ties with the founders of apartheid that they forgot about the Englishman. He said removing the statue would be scraping the surface. “If it is removed, Rhodes Memorial would need to follow. The statue is a small aspect of transformation; many may say it is window dressing.”
Maylam said many people hated Rhodes without knowing much about him. “Could he have been so bad if Mandela was affiliated with him?”
Adebajo, who studied at Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, called for the removal of the statue. “Eighty years after the statue was erected, UCT should surely remove the monstrosity from public viewing. Place it in a colonialist museum. There is no statue of Hitler in Germany, so why should Rhodes remain there for 80 years?”
Adebajo said he was “happy to bite the hand that fed me”.
Discussing Rhodes’s legacy, he said Mandela had made a mistake associating with the Rhodes name when creating the Mandela Rhodes Trust back in 2002, saying it had been a “monstrous marriage”.
Mandela had gone to Oxford with Jakes Gerwel, head of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, to seek funds, and was given £10 million to form the Mandela Rhodes Trust.
Many made excuses for Rhodes’s legacy, calling him “a man of his time”. But “he was a ruthless businessman, politician and a crude racist”.
Over the past few weeks, Rhodes’s role in South African history and his monument at UCT have sparked fury among students.
On Wednesday, students and university staff attended a meeting in the Jameson Hall to discuss transformation and the removal of the statue. The rowdy meeting saw Professor Barney Pityana, newly elected president of the university convocation, forced off the stage, accused of being mandated by the university.
Yesterday, Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa released a statement which said the government did not support the statue’s removal. “We neither support nor encourage the violent removal of any statue because we do not encourage people to take matter into their own hands.”