Africa Focus: Battle against apartheid era statues rages on in South Africa

The University of Cape Town has

finally resolved to temporarily remove Cecil John Rhodes's statue from its premises following weeks of protests by students who demanded its removal because of its connection with the colonization of South Africa.

Rhodes is blamed for establishing the British colonial rule in the Cape Peninsula. However, the protests have sparked vandalism of other apartheid era statues around the country and tensions are already at a boiling point.

It was a moment of jubilations, song and dance for the University of Cape Town students on Thursday as the statue of Cecil John Rhodes was finally brought down and taken away.

It all started on March 9 this year, when some students at the University of Cape Town camped inside the university's administration block demanding that Cecil John Rhodes' statue standing on the main steps of the university's upper campus be removed with immediate effect.

During this campaign called "RhodesMustFall", two students even threw human excrete on the statue.

The university has finally conceded that Rhodes must fall. Reverend Jongonkulu Dungane, University of Cape Town Council Chairperson, said the university has decided to temporarily remove the statue, while waiting for permission from the National Heritage Council to permanently remove it.

"We are concerned about the safety of the statue and believe that the only way to protect it, while waiting for the Western Cape Heritage Council to consider our applications for its permanent removal, will be to temporarily remove it for safe keeping," said Dungane.

The statue was taken down on Thursday and kept at an undisclosed location. However, the "RhodesMustFall" campaign has already sparked a countrywide war against all statues linked to apartheid.

Rhodes came from Britain to South Africa, where he founded the De Beers diamond empire and later became premier of Cape Colony in 1890. He began the policy of enforced racial segregation in South Africa.

Rhodes donated the land on which the UCT campus was built. The statue, unveiled in 1934, depicts him in a seated position and has been a source of discontent for years.

When South Africa ended apartheid in 1994, statues of important people linked to the country's colonial rule that oppressed black South Africans, were never removed from different public areas as a sign of reconciliation.

Now many say those statues must go. Those demanding the removal of the statues claim they remind them of a brutal past which they want to forget.

Unknown assailants have set alight an apartheid war memorial statue at Uitenhage Market Square, in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape Province. The statue was erected in honour of volunteers who fought in the Anglo Boer war between 1899 and 1902.

Apartheid president Paul Kruger's statue, in Pretoria has also been splashed with lime green paint by unknown assailants. Now threats have been made to target other statues linked to colonial eras around the city.

The statue of apartheid prime minister Louis Botha at the door- steps of Parliament in Cape Town has also been vandalized.

Sonwabile Mancotywa, CEO of the National Heritage Council, has condemned the vandalism on national monuments and is now calling on law enforcement to protect the country's heritage.

Mancotywa said, "Our heritage cannot be a football, for people who want to perform anarchy, which is the highest stage of disorder in our country. We must keep our heritage

"If we do not have heritage, we have nothing and therefore destroying it cannot be allowed. Those who want the statues removed must follow proper processes."

The war against apartheid era statues has divided South Africans. Some Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) members have been cited in connection with some of the vandalism incidents. The ruling African National Congress Youth League has also called for the removal of these statues, but has distanced itself from the vandalism incidents.

Ordinary South Africans are also divided over the issue. Twenty- year old Mpho Thwala, is opposed to the removal of the statues.

"Whether the statues are there or not, that does not make any difference to me as a South African. I do not think it is necessary to remove them," Thwala said.

However, Tamoshi Ramafone, 25, said the apartheid statues have no place in an independent South Africa.

He said, "Every time we come across those statues, we are reminded of the brutal past and our wounds start bleeding again. Those statues are a symbols of oppression and they must be removed. "

The debate has also drawn in Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, whose country has the grave of Rhodes, saying Zimbabwe has decided to leave Rhodes in the grave.

"We are looking after the corpse and you have the statue. I do not know what you think we should do. Perhaps his spirit might rise again and what shall we do," Mugabe said during his state visit to South Africa on Wednesday.

Some have now urged the government to quickly take charge of the situation, before the country is plunged into a serious race war. Endi