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| Pan African students calling for the removal of Rhodes statue |
Rhodes was the owner of many colonial companies that were used to exploit Africa. He wanted to buy up the entire continent. Zambia (Northern Rhodesia) and Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia) were former named after him, after he claimed to have bought the lands from their kings.
The statue of a seated Rhodes overlooking the main rugby fields of the university, one of Africa's top academic institutions, has been covered up for the past few weeks as students, both whites and blacks, regularly marched past with placards calling for its removal.
They insist the statue, unveiled in 1934, is a symbol of the institutional racism they say prevails in South Africa two decades after the end of white-minority rule which marginalised blacks.
It is one of three monuments to the arch-imperialist erected around Cape Town, including the massive Romanesque granite Rhodes Memorial on the slopes of Table Mountain overlooking the university.
A special council set up by the university to decide on the issue said the statue may suggest that the university adheres to Rhodes and his values, which are inconsistent with the university's commitment to providing an inclusive environment for all its members.
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A student wears a sticker calling for the removal of a statue of Cecil
John Rhodes from the campus of the University of Cape Town March 20, 2015.
REUTERS/MIKE HUTCHINGS
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The protests against the statue have triggered similar reaction at other institutions of higher learning in South Africa and other symbols, with a statue of Afrikaner Paul Kruger in the capital Pretoria vandalised with green paint recently. The statue of Louis Botha outside the gates of Parliament was also smeared with red and blue paint on Wednesday night. The words "Louis Botha Farmer Warrior Statesman" on the base of the statue were covered in red paint, while darker paint was splashed on the statue of Botha on his horse.
News24's Lauren Hess reported that a police officer on duty outside Parliament said the statue was defaced when she arrived at work at 06:00. Netwerk24 reported that EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi tweeted "Botha must go" along with a picture of the defaced statue, but the party has not claimed responsibility for it.
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| Botha statue defaced |
The incident took place amid a national debate on the future of colonial-era statues around the country. The University of Cape Town Council decided on Wednesday that the statue of Cecil John Rhodes on the steps of the university's upper campus be removed.
Botha fought during the South African War and later became prime minister of the Union of South Africa. He established the South African Party with Jan Smuts, Netwerk24 reported.
The university council said the Rhodes statue would be taken down from Thursday to protect it, and kept in storage pending a decision from heritage authorities on its final resting place.
A vocal group of mostly black students stormed the special council meeting on Wednesday evening, demanding that they be heard on various other issues as well, including on the curriculum and the racial composition of university staff.
"We know that this issue is beyond the statue. It speaks to institutional racism, it speaks to a curriculum which is poisonous to an African child and speaks to black people at UCT who still feel they are a problem,” student protester, Masixole Mlandu, told Reuters.
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| Rhodes was an imperialist extraordinaire who deeply exploited Africa. Born in England in 1853, Rhodes made his fortune with his De Beers mining company and used his vast wealth to pursue his dream of expanding Britain's empire in Africa, annexing Mashonaland - present-day Zimbabwe - and naming it Rhodesia after himself. |
In October 1871, 18-year-old Rhodes and his brother Herbert left for the diamond fields of Kimberley. Financed by N.M Rothschild & Sons, Rhodes bought up all the smaller diamond mining operations in the Kimberley area in 17 years. His monopoly of the world's diamond supply was sealed in 1890 through a strategic partnership with the London-based Diamond Syndicate. They agreed to control world supply to maintain high prices. Among his associates in the early days were John X. Merriman and Charles Rudd, who later became his partner in the De Beers Mining Company and the Niger Oil Company. The Niger Oil Company was the British instrument used in the colonisation of Nigeria.
Meanwhile, the removal the Rhodes statue from the University of Cape Town (UCT) has been described as not reverse racism. "This is not reverse racism at all. We are dealing with historical justice here," 36-year-old Wandile Kasibe, a student who is to start his PhD in Sociology at the university next month declared on Thursday.
"After the statue has fallen, this is just the beginning. We are pushing for decolonisation and we need to see a curriculum that is transformed. It is a noble cause," he told News24 in front of the statue.
Kasibe, who has three Masters degrees, hit back at claims that students calling for the statue's removal were "brainless" and trying to run away from their academic work.
"We are serious students who are doing our work."
He said it was a nonsensical argument to say that students who were unhappy with Rhodes should give up their Mandela Rhodes scholarships.
"Whose money was that? When Rhodes came here, he accumulated that money at the expense of our people."
A team of riggers and a crane truck lifted the statue in a test-run on Thursday morning, ahead of its permanent removal at 17:00.
One of the riggers, Anton McEwan, told News24, they arrived at the campus at 07:00, attached the necessary ropes and lifted the statue about 30cm high an hour later.
"The statue is made of bronze and weighs about a ton-and-a-half," McEwan said. He said it would take about five minutes to lift it on Thursday afternoon.
The riggers sat in front of the statue and guarded it. A fence and green netting surrounded the statue, which overlooks sports fields and the city's suburbs.
A constant stream of students walked past and most stopped to take a photo on their phones, tablets or laptops.
Around midday, a drone also hovered over the statue for a few minutes, presumably taking photos or a video of the scene.
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