Horse Rider Falls and #RhodesStatue to be Removed

After all has been said and done, the University of Cape Town (UCT) announced tonight, after a council meeting, that the Rhodes statue will be temporarily removed from the university campus.

Reactions on social media have been mixed with some expressing great relief and joy, others warning this is the start of something more sinister and several admitting to having “mixed feelings”.

In a joint statement with Heritage Western Cape, UCT confirmed that a permit for the temporary removal of the Rhodes statue from the campus has been granted.

“These steps are being taken to ensure the safety of the statue while matters concerning its future are resolved,” said the statement, which was published on UCT’s website.

The permit for temporary removal grants the University the right to legally remove the statue for storage at an alternative venue that has to be to the satisfaction of Heritage Western Cape. (The upper campus precinct is a declared provincial heritage site and is therefore subject to heritage legislation.)

The removal will take place tomorrow at 5 pm and will be overseen by a Heritage architect.

The future of the statue of British colonist Cecil John Rhodes has been a hot topic in South Africa (and made headlines around the world) since Chumani Maxwele defaced the statue with faeces last month in protest at the glorification of the former white leader.

Chumani’s actions set off a #RhodesMustFall campaign which resulted in a countrywide debate (see links below for opinions from both sides), as well as in other statues in South Africa being vandalised including a horse memorial in Nelson Mandela Bay, pictured below, which was damaged over the Easter Weekend.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in Port Elizabeth have claimed responsibility for dismantling the horse memorial – they forcefully pulled off a kneeling soldier who was holding a bucket up for the horse to drink. Photographer Luc Hosten took these photos afterwards.

At this point it’s uncertain what future will be in store for these and other statues once Rhodes is removed.

As far as the Rhodes Statue’s own future, according to tonight’s UCT statement the permit for temporary removal is granted “pending a main application within 90 days for the permanent removal. This will include a process of wider public participation.”

Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, chairperson of UCT’s Council, said “the university will now continue with the planned review of other symbols and names over the remainder of this year. Furthermore the student engagement on this issue has added an energy and urgency to addressing many other aspects of transformation and has mobilised members of the university community not previously seized with the issue. The university management will partner with the students, different staff structures and the UCT community to review and refocus our transformation plans.”

UCT Vice-Chancellor Dr Max Price said tonight that “this is an incredibly important moment in UCT’s history – and not for the reasons you might think. Today marks the day that UCT decided that the statue of Cecil John Rhodes should come down. He will fall from the podium from which he’s surveyed this campus, this city and the continent for many decades.

“But it must be remembered not for his falling, but for what rose in his place. The campus community we’ve all longed and hoped for, the UCT we’re already in the process of becoming.

“Rhodes must fall. Out of his dust, may UCT rise.”

Please click here to read the full piece from UCT’s Vice-Chancellor Dr Max Price on tonight’s decision to remove #RhodesStatue.

Opinion Pieces on the Rhodes Statue:

• Erase Rhodes? That Offends Me as a Teacher
• Removal of the Rhodes Statue. Reflection and Realisations
• Rhodes Scholar Eusebius McKaiser Defends his Right to Support #RhodesMustFall Movement