The Rhodes statue affair: Ken Gibbs

In 2015/2016, at Cape Town University – where both my wife and I studied in the early 1960s – the students had become so disenchanted with ‘The New South Africa’ which promised so much following the release of Nelson Mandela, but which has delivered well below their expectations, that they decided on a practical method of showing their disappointment.  

The statue of Cecil John Rhodes - that doyen of colonial southern Africa – which was mounted on a plinth in the Rhodes Memorial Gardens above the University of Cape Town, was daubed with human excrement and rumours had it that the statue would be removed from its plinth and maybe even melted down for good measure.  Given that the university was originally funded in large part by Rhodes himself, it is a curiosity that the very liberal institution that Rhodes did so much to support, has provided a springboard for the protesters whose mantra is about ‘disparity’.

If this had been purely an internal affair of the university, one could expect it to have blown over as so many other issues did in the past, but this was ‘The New South Africa’ where a number of opportunists operated.  One such was Julius Malema who came to prominence as the leader of the Youth Wing of the ANC (The African National Congress, the party still in power in South Africa), which he used to further his political ambitions.  Where Malema was involved, violence usually accompanied him.  At the time, the leader of the ANC was none other than the then President, Mr Jacob Zuma.

We probably would do well to remember that Rhodes died in 1902, well over 110 years before those students decided that he should be dishonoured; and that protesting at historical facts will do little to change history.

Read on for a short Op-Ed of the affair:

~ The Rhodes statue affair ~

CJ’s statue’s been smeared

With layers of human shit

Which is a novel new material

In the decorator’s kit.

I have to tell those students

I really do, you know,

That this novel new material

Won’t make the statue grow.

Removal of the statue

To make it into ‘cents’

Won’t bring in too much money

So that doesn’t make good sense.

But replace it with Malema’s

A suggestion we have heard

Might be most appropriate

For that monumental turd.

If you want to change disparity

We think it should be said;

You smear your politicians

Instead of those who’re dead.

28-4-15

Post script:

Knowing that this piece was unlikely to be viewed sympathetically by the protesters, I was very selective in sharing it with friends.  We still maintained a friendship with an academic at the university where all these events took place, and I sent it to him for his amusement.  He was so taken by it that he placed it in full view in his office at the university where he was then a senior academic in economics.  He had the advantage of most others as he had been consistently a voice against apartheid, and a supporter of the ANC in exile.

He died quite recently but I am certain that he would approve of this piece in any memorial of his time on earth.  

RIP Mike Savage, a man of great courage.