Mogale City Local Municipality together with The Heritage Foundation cleaned the defaced statues of Paul Kruger and JG Strydom yesterday.
The two statues that stand next to each other close to Key West Shopping Mall were splashed with oil based enamel red paint allegedly in the early hours of Wednesday. Mogale City spokesperson Nkosana Zali said Mogale City Executive Mayor, Koketso Calvin Seerane and Members of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) met with experts from The Heritage Foundation to tackle the challenge.
“We were approached by The Heritage Foundation (Die Erfenisstigting) yesterday, a non-profit company which has experience in restoring vandalised and defaced public statues and monuments. They will assist with the restoration process,” Zali said.
“A meeting between the Executive Mayor, MMC for Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation, Cllr Nomalizo Kufa and heritage experts yesterday resolved on a three pronged approach to tackle the defacement challenge,” Zali added.
He said the three pronged approached will:
- Step up patrolling along the 10 memorial sites and the eleventh being constructed in Kagiso;
- Encourage frank discussion on heritage issues to help deal and embrace our past and build a shared vision for the future;
- Assemble a non-partisan group of volunteers to help clean the statues.
Political parties across the city, regardless of belief, assembled today to clean the statues.
These include the African National Congress, Democratic Alliance, Freedom Front Plus, South African Municipal Workers Union, and AfriForum.
Heritage Foundation’s Advocate Renier “Jaco” de Beer was happy about the cleaning process.
“We as the Heritage Foundation are happy that Mogale City is cleaning the defaced statues. We are grateful that the municipality managed to position security throughout the night to guard the statues so that there is no further damage to them,” De Beer said.
De beer added that: “We are doing this to preserve our heritage for our children and grand-great children. Because Mogale City has offered us the opportunity to be part of the cleaning process, we are going to carry the cleaning costs.”
The cleaning process was done by The Heritage Foundation, the same company that cleaned the defaced statue of Marthinus Wessel Pretorius in front of Tshwane City Hall.
Zali added that: “The clean-up is underway and will take an additional two-and-half days. The municipality remains grateful to those who lent a helping hand and words of encouragement as we work to restore our historical endowment, these memorial treasures.”
The vandalism of statues follows a series of similar incidents around the country after students at the University of Cape Town protested for the removal of Cecil John Rhodes’ statue.