Leaders condemn defacing of Hankey burial site
Leaders condemn defacing of Hankey burial site
EMOTIONS ran high yesterday when about 20 members from four of the five national Khoisan houses addressed the media at a press briefing following the defacing of the Sarah Baartman burial site in Hankey.
The world-famous burial site and memorial plaque was splashed with white paint on Saturday.
According to police, a group of men threw the white paint onto the plaque shortly before midday.
Yesterday, members of the municipality, led by Kouga mayor Booi Koerat, and various Khoi and San chiefs addressed the media before making their way to the site.
“Today is Freedom Day, a commemoration of the day that signalled the fall of the oppressive system of apartheid and the dawn of a new democracy for all to enjoy equal rights,” Koerat said.
“It was the dawn of a time where someone like Sarah Baartman could have her citizenship affirmed, her dignity restored and honour bestowed on her by the peoples of her native land.”
The vandals showed complete disregard for the history of South Africa and the significance of symbols associated with the indigenous people of the country, he said.
“This abominable act has left a deep sense of shock and disappointment in our hearts. We condemn, with the contempt it deserves, this despicable deed,” he said.
Koerat said ward councillor Xolisile Persent had laid a complaint of destruction of public property with the police.
Police spokeswoman Warrant Officer Gerda Swart said on Sunday a case of damage to property in terms of the violation of the National Heritage Act was under investigation.
The national leader of the Khoisan people, Chief Margaret Coetzee, said there were no words to describe the pain the Khoisan people were feeling in the aftermath of Saturday’s vandalism.
“This deed is uncalled for,” she said.
With a quiver in her voice and a tear in her eye, Coetzee asked: “Has mamma Sarah Baartman not suffered enough, physically and spiritually?”
Coetzee also called for calm and peace in the wake of the xenophobic attacks around the country and the vandalism of national monuments and symbols.
“We, the Khoisan, do not believe in building statues in the image of people. We respect the spirit of the person, they must rest.”
After the media briefing, delegates representing the different national Khoisan houses made their way to the burial site where they paid their respects to Baartman and again called for peace in the country.
Sarah Baartman District Municipality councillor Noel O’Connell, who attended the briefing and procession on behalf of mayor Eunice Kekana, said the municipality was working with all stakeholders and the police to bring the culprits to book.
“We are committed to the rebuilding, rehabilitation and restoration of Sarah Baartman’s dignity.”
O’Connell said official documentation to this effect would be finalised when Kekana returned from her trip to Argentina.
The gravesite of Baartman, who had been taken to Europe and used as an anthropological exhibit in the early 1800s, was conferred as a national heritage site in 2002 after personal intervention by then president Nelson Mandela to bring Baartman’s remains back to her country of origin.
Since then, the gravesite which overlooks Hankey and the rolling hills surrounding it, has been revered as a local tourist attraction and a place of remembrance for the indigenous Khoisan people.
‘ This abominable act has left a deep sense of shock in our hearts