Movement of statues cannot be a blanket approach

25 September 2020

The Democratic Alliance (DA) reiterates our request that the final report of the task team established to investigate public sentiment regarding South African statues, signs and monuments be made public.

While the DA is not opposed to the auditing and possible movement of certain statues, it is not a project that should be undertaken lightly and without extensive public consultation.

Every statue or monument must also be dealt with individually – there is no “one size fits all” blanket approach that can be adopted. Decisions of this nature has to take into consideration the views of the community in which a particular statue or monument is located, as well as alternative solutions to outright removal – these may include erecting a plaque to provide historical context to, or more information about, a statue or monument; or allowing for the statue to be removed to a museum or to private property.

The DA further definitely does not condone the movement of statues to so-called “theme parks” or “heritage parks for cultural nation building” as this opens up the gates to a single government-controlled narrative of South Africa’s history. Our nation’s history lies in our stories. Our stories are not the property of any government.

The process must be entirely transparent. As is apparent by the numerous opinion pieces that have appeared just these past few weeks on the subject, this is a sensitive issue to all the different cultures that call South Africa home. The government’s current blunt one-size-fits-all approach cannot be the answer to this problem.

There appears to be certain irregularities with the processes thus far. As such, the DA has called for the task team and Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Nathi Mthethwa, to appear before the parliamentary portfolio committee on sports, arts and culture to answer questions about the process followed to date and the plans for moving forward.

The history of South Africa – as tragic and violent as it is – cannot be sanitised. It must be faced and learned from so that those mistakes will never be repeated.

The DA has a vision of a South Africa that is inclusive in which we may speak openly about our past and work toward creating a shared future in which everybody can participate.

Issued by Veronica van Dyk, DA Deputy Shadow Minister for Sports, Arts and Culture, 25 September 2020