Two women arrested for statue attack

TWO women who allegedly threw white paint over the Uitenhage War Memorial statue on Monday were arrested in the town yesterday.

Police spokeswoman Warrant Officer Gerda Swart said the women, aged 28 and 29, were arrested following a tip-off. Both women live in Uitenhage. The vandals struck amid plans by the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality to move the statue to a place of safety after it was torched in April during a nationwide campaign against colonial-era statues.

The metro is still counting the cost of the damage caused to the city’s heritage sites. It is estimated to run into hundreds of thousands of rands.

“There were witnesses who saw the incident, which assisted with the investigation,” Swart said.

The women were arrested in Durban Street at about 1pm.

The cast-iron Anglo-Boer War memorial, of a soldier holding a rifle, had white paint flung onto it and the names “Lebo” and “Vuvu” painted on the ground beside it.

Swart declined to name the two women and would not say if the names painted on the ground were their first names.

The EFF in the Bay, who in April took responsibility for vandalising the statue as well as damaging the Horse Memorial in Port Elizabeth, has distanced itself from the latest attack.

In April, the Sarah Baartman memorial site in Hankey – a popular tourist attraction – was also vandalised with paint, as was the Queen Victoria statue in Govan Mbeki Avenue, Port Elizabeth.

The women are due to appear in the Uitenhage Magistrate’s Court tomorrow.