The permit issued by Heritage Western Cape (HWC) on March 31, 2015 for the temporary removal of the statue requires that the application for permanent removal of the statue be lodged with HWC within 90 days, failing which the statue must be reinstated.
We commenced the process of public consultation immediately thereafter, but the Interested and Affected Parties raised concerns that this would not allow sufficient time for commenting on the draft Heritage Statement.
This concern was referred to HWC, and in order to promote better administrative justice and to ensure a thorough public consultation process where a two-phase public consultation process would be accommodated, a decision was taken on April 22, 2015, to extend the 90-day time frame stipulated in the permit, dated March 31, 2015, to 150 days from the date of the permit.
When the Draft Guidelines for Public Monuments and Memorials were released at the end of June 2015, UCT applied to HWC for a 30-day extension allowing us time to consider any possible implications of the Draft Guidelines on our application. In terms of this, an application for an extension was submitted to HWC on July 8, 2015, and on August 4, 2015, the Committee agreed to further extend the deadline for submission from 150 days to 180 days.
During the process of finalising the draft Heritage Statement, it became evident, through a miscalculation, that less than 30 days remain for public comment on the draft statement.
To ensure that no party would be disadvantaged through this oversight, UCT requested that HWC consider extending the deadline for the submission of the application for the permanent removal of the Rhodes statue and Heritage Statement from September 28, 2015, to November 12, 2015, allowing for a 30-day period for public comment from September 21 to October 20, 2015.
University of Cape Town
Communication and Marketing Department