The South African Heritage Resources Agency says one of the lessons to be drawn from the Rhodes Must Fall campaign is that history must be inclusive. The campaign led to the removal of the statue of British colonialist Cecil John Rhodes on University of Cape Town’s (UCT) upper campus in April this year after students’ protests.
On Friday they briefed Parliament’s oversight committee on Tourism on the importance of heritage sites for the development of tourism.
The Agency’s Chief Executive Office, Veliswa Baduza, says there are lessons that can be drawn from the Rhodes Must Fall campaign.
“If there is anything positive about that is that South Africans were awakened to understanding heritage and demanding that the heritage landscape reflects all the histories so that it is not biased or skewed towards a certain history. All the histories of the country and the stories of South Africans must be told…that’s what came out of the whole Rhodes Must Fall Campaign.”
The agency says consultation is critical in the process of declaring sites as national heritage sites.
The agency is responsible for the maintenance of the 36 National Heritage sites located in eight of the nine province.
The National Heritage sites include burial sites, open sites, monuments, and buildings.
It says it is currently consulting on its intention to declare two authenticated copies of the Freedom Charter signed by presidents of the five participating organisations involved in the 1955 Congress of the People as specially declared heritage objects.
The Agency has expressed concern about the neglect of some heritage resources.
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