The ongoing controversy over the University of Cape Town’s statue of Cecil John Rhodes has sparked a needed debate over the memorialising of South Africa’s historical figures. If the Rhodes statue were to be taken down, who would replace him? Mandela? Biko? Tambo? If the status quo is anything to go by, it would be another statue of a man. REBECCA DAVIS examines the shortage of statues of female Struggle figures in particular in post-Apartheid South Africa.
Would you like to see a list of public statues and monuments in South Africa? When the Daily Maverick contacted the National Inventory Unit of the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) to ask for this information, we discovered it wasn’t that easy.
“All public monuments are protected in terms of the National Heritage Resources Act, but do not require formal declaration,” National Inventory Unit manager Katie Smuts emailed back. “Those memorials that have been graded or declared are listed with us.”
These amount to a grand total of 24. They include the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria, constructed over 12 years and inaugurated in 1949. There’s the remains of the Cross erected by Portuguese explorer Bartholomew Dias in 1488 when he rounded the…
Op-Ed – Whether Colonist or Struggle Hero, in the Realm of SA Statues It's Still a Man's World [analysis]
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