A preliminary report by the Department of Arts and Culture Task team has recommended that statues of colonial and apartheid figures should be removed from prominent public locations.
The Task Team on Transformation of South Africa’s Heritage Landscape was established following the ‘Rhodes Must Fall’ protests that started at the University of Cape Town in 2015.
The ‘Rhodes Must Fall‘ demonstrations then triggered popular nationwide protests leading to defacing of many statues.
Following extensive public consultations, the task team report has found that some statues do not represent national constitutional values such as freedom and equality.
“It would ask too much for Germans to have Hitler all over their public space. It would be asking too much for South Africa to have Verwoerd occupy public spaces”, said Arts And Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa.
The report however says removed statues will not be dumped. They will be displayed at designated theme parks.
“You have these monuments that represent a very ugly past values that are contrary to the values we have now and what we seek to become. So there is tension there that is why you had an implosion of protests a couple of years ago, some of these statues attacked. So a popular feeling was that they must be removed,” said task team chairperson, Prof. Mcebisi Ndletyana.
However civil rights group AfriForum says removing past statues will amount to erasing of minority groups’ history.
