Heritage battle heats up between EFF, AfriForum
Street in Cape Town.
EFF Nelson Mandela Bay regional deputy chairman Bo Madwara criticised the government over the use of police to protect statues.
“It doesn ’ t serve any purpose to send police to watch the statues instead of sending them to where people are being robbed, raped and killed,” he said.
“This shows that government doesn ’ t care about the safety of black people, but cares about nursing white people ’ s feelings.
“These statues cannot be in our faces as if they are something to be proud of. The arrogance of racist whites is further strengthened by these colonial statues in public. They must be taken to a museum.”
Tshwane municipality spokesman Blessing Manale said a risk analysis had been done on all the city ’ s monuments, with metro police placed at the Voortrekker Monument, Freedom Park, City Hall, the Union Buildings and Church Square. The areas were deemed high risk.
He said while the vandalising was divisive, the city was considering calls to remove them.
“We will check under which law it ’ s protected as part of heritage and engage with the minister of arts and culture. We will hold informal public hearings on the matter, but the youth has made the call and they make up 60% of Tshwane population.”
AfriForum ’ s chief executive Kallie Kriel said: “The state has an obligation to protect heritage monuments physically, but we can start up by putting up CCTV cameras to identify such perpetrators.”
DA Nelson Mandela Bay caucus leader Retief Odendaal called for a national debate on the statues.