Pretoria News - While colonial and apartheid era statutes across South Africa face an uncertain future, Oom Paul Kruger on Church Square is going nowhere, and Marthinus Wessel Pretorius will continue to stand proud outside the City Hall along with Chief Tshwane.
The latest debate was sparked by students at the University of Cape Town who are demanding the removal of the statue of Cecil John Rhodes from their campus.
In a show of solidarity with the students, activist Suleiman Stellenboom hung placards on statues of General Jan Smuts (“I’ve got your land so what?”) and Jan van Riebeeck (“I stole your land so what?”) in Cape Town.
But Blessing Manale, mayoral spokesman for the City of Tshwane made it clear that the capital was holding on to its heritage as executive mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa did not want a divided city.
“Social cohesion and investing in our arts, culture and heritage are core to creating a liveable and caring city. As such we have no intention of removing from the City Hall the statues of Marthinus Pretorius, founder of Pretoria. The same applies to Paul Kruger, president of the former South African Republic, on Church Square. This is because the Afrikaner and his heritage are also important to us and the mayor says he does not want to lead a divided and polarised city,” said Manale.
“We have successfully demonstrated through the street name change campaign that gradual reform and decolonisation heritage programmes requires extensive consultation and community mobilisation,” he added.
“We also take pride in the iconic seat of government, the Union Buildings. Though built at a time when segregation defined society, its values of unity have stood the test of time.
“It now serves as a monument for democracy and transformation – with Mandela jealously guarding over it,” said Manale.
To reconstruct the history and futuristic outlook of city heritage depictions, Tshwane, together with the Department of Arts and Culture, were in the final phases of the development concept of the largest national monument and the National Heroes Monument in the country at the Fountains Valley Nature Reserve, he said.
“This entails an assembly of life-size statues of luminaries of our democratic dispensation, which will be displayed in a symbolic walk towards a united South Africa. It will also represent the reconnection with those who were the midwives of the new dispensation, as symbolised by the grand statue of Nelson Mandela at the Union Buildings,” said Manale.
Not far from the planned heroes monument is the Voor-trekker Monument Heritage Site which has a collection of busts of all the previous apartheid heads of state.
“Most of the statues and busts we have here are on a loan agreement from the Gauteng Provincial Museum Services,” said the monument’s spokeswoman Geraldine Paulsen.
Other busts the monument has on loan are people like the previous administrator of the Transvaal, FH Odendaal, after whom a school in the city is named.
The monument has also rescued busts of assassinated apartheid prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd
Pretoria News