Editor
THE recent move by university students to have the statues of King George and Cecil John Rhodes removed from the Universities of Cape Town and KwaZulu-Natal is to be praised. The youth of today are the future leaders of tomorrow.
Moreover, do we really want our children to grow up in a country wherein the statues of men, whose ideologies were radically different from those espoused in our Constitution, are still standing? This is an insult to those who died for our freedom. It is not a matter of taking out one’s frustration on relics of the past. It is rather a rejection of what these men stood for. Today we are all supposed to be equal in a free country. We do not need reminders of our painful past.
The white citizens of South Africa who benefited from our past must move on. Today we live in an unequal society wherein the white minority still lives privileged lives. Such distinctions on the grounds of race was the intention of Cecil John Rhodes. Rhodes was an imperialist who believed in British supremacy. Today we cannot accept the racial superiority of any group.
It is beyond me why white South Africans should complain about the removal of Rhodes’ statue. Were Rhodes’ ambitions not one of the causes of the Anglo-Boer War of 1899 to 1902? Those who are offended suffer from an identity crisis, and should consider whether they are Europeans or South Africans.
I suggest white people should move forward. No-one is asking them for reparations, but just to accept the new South Africa.
Segran Padayachee
Umgeni Park
