The EFF welcomes the fall of Rhodes statue at UCT

09 April 2015

The Economic Freedom Fighters welcome the University of Cape Town council's decision to remove the statue of Cecil John Rhodes from campus following the students protest which demanded its fall. We celebrate this as an important step towards the transformation of our public academic spaces, which open up a meaningful possibility to recreate them in favour of a progressive cultural symbolism that represents post-apartheid democratic values.

The EFF celebrates the protestors, beginning with Chumani Maxwele, who through their decisive act have inspired the whole of society to reimagine its public spaces. The UCT must inspire all other universities, as centers of learning and research, not to wait for protest, but to undertake a non-negotiable removal of colonial and apartheid statues whilst ensuring public participation in that regard.

Of all institutions that must take inspiration from UCT is government and parliament, who must also remove all colonial and apartheid monuments in our public spaces. The EFF has long held the conviction that it is these monuments that continue to inspire white people to think they are superior and have the right to celebrate their murderous and racist past even 21 years after 1994.

Let all statues fall, together with their legacies of landlessness, racism and poverty.

Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, April 9 2015

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