{"id":129448,"date":"2016-07-07T14:07:08","date_gmt":"2016-07-07T12:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=129448"},"modified":"2016-07-07T14:13:14","modified_gmt":"2016-07-07T12:13:14","slug":"this-is-whats-in-store-for-the-rhodes-statue-from-uct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/129448\/this-is-whats-in-store-for-the-rhodes-statue-from-uct\/","title":{"rendered":"This is what’s in store for the Rhodes statue at UCT"},"content":{"rendered":"

A report<\/a> compiled by professional heritage practitioner, Ashley Lillie gives insight into the University of Cape Town’s decision to remove the controversial statue of Cecil John Rhodes from its campus – and where it may go from here.<\/p>\n

The statue of Cecil John Rhodes was removed from the grounds of UCT in April 2015, following massive student protest over its presence on the campus.<\/p>\n

The permit granted to remove the statue was only temporary, however, and Lillie\u00a0was commissioned to compile a report on the prospects for the monument.<\/p>\n

UCT itself submitted that the statue should be permanently removed, noting that the statue was unoriginal, has relatively low cultural significance and value, and was never intended to be part of the university’s architecture anyway.<\/p>\n

While the university itself is a heritage site, the statue was superimposed on the university in the 1930s. It was originally placed below the rugby fields, before being relocated to the Upper Campus following the widening of De Waal Drive in the early 1960s.<\/p>\n

Its removal would not impact the heritage of the university, it said.\u00a0The university offered the following motivation for its permanent removal:<\/p>\n

Since the statue has limited cultural significance in its own right, UCT does not consider it to be a\u00a0public monument or memorial as provided for in Section 37 of the National Heritage Resources Act\u00a0(Act 25 of 1999).<\/p>\n

It is an uninspired work that was derived directly from Rodin\u2019s highly acclaimed\u00a0\u201cThinker\u201d. It therefore not only lacks originality, but also has very limited aesthetic merit.<\/p>\n

More\u00a0importantly, although it commemorates someone who had a substantial impact on the history of\u00a0South Africa, many local and international constituencies (and the overwhelming number of the\u00a0staff and students of the University), now regard Rhodes\u2019 legacy as highly problematic.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The statue’s future<\/h3>\n

UCT wants the statue and its plinth to be permanently removed, and for the marble steps of the upper campus to be restored.<\/p>\n

According to the report, UCT has\u00a0received three big offers to take the statue, with a few other recommendations on what to do with it.<\/p>\n

The Crow Foundation<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first offer came from\u00a0the Crow\u00a0Foundation in Texas (USA), which offered to pay for its removal and transport to keep the sculpture in a sculpture\u00a0garden that is dedicated to the preservation of monuments.<\/p>\n

This would be\u00a0on condition that the Foundation\u00a0would become the owner of the statue. If requested to do so, the Crow Foundation would return\u00a0the statue to UCT (or South Africa) in perpetuity, but only after twenty years has elapsed.<\/p>\n

All costs\u00a0incurred to remove, transport, and return the statue would be that of the Foundation, which is also\u00a0willing to provide UCT with the necessary funds to reinstate the granite steps leading and installing\u00a0a plaque or story board with information about the removal.<\/p>\n

The Foundation said it will also restore the\u00a0statue to the condition it was before the protests as well as assume the stewardship and future\u00a0maintenance.<\/p>\n

Cheetah Foundation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another offer came from\u00a0 another from the\u00a0owner of a series of properties adjacent to the Cheetah Foundation at Paardevlei in Somerset West.<\/p>\n

Tourists regularly visit this historical precinct and the Cheetah Foundation\u00a0– and f housed at this\u00a0location, the statue could be reinterpreted through an appropriate plaque and would remain\u00a0accessible to local visitors, the report said.<\/p>\n

Nooitgedacht Estate<\/strong><\/p>\n

The third big offer came from\u00a0Nooitgedacht Estate near Stellenbosch. The estate was bought from\u00a0the Cecil John Rhodes Estate in 1923 by the Wirth family.<\/p>\n

If placed here, it is proposed that the maintenance of the Rhodes\u00a0statue would be overseen by Bronz Editions, which will also make a separate proposal to run an\u00a0initiative in conjunction with UCT aimed at commissioning additional sculptures reflecting the\u00a0creativity of local artist.<\/p>\n

Other options<\/strong><\/p>\n

Several other options include\u00a0suggestions of other locations such as museums, Rhodes Memorial, Groote Schuur Estate and other areas which remain untested.<\/p>\n

A recommendation was also given that the statue be sold off to raise funds for university bursaries, but this\u00a0is unlikely due to the relatively low value of the statue itself.<\/p>\n

More on Rhodes<\/h3>\n

The Rhodes scholarship was never meant for blacks: historian<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n

A timeline of how SA statues were targeted<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n

South African student takes #RhodesMustFall campaign to Oxford<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n

South Africa\u2019s best monuments<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A report gives insight into the University of Cape Town’s decision to remove the controversial statue of Cecil John Rhodes from its campus – and where it may go from here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":84835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-129448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129448"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129484,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129448\/revisions\/129484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}