Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) – A famous statue of 19th-century colonialist Cecil John Rhodes has been beheaded in Cape Town.
Police say it appears the incident happened over the weekend and a case was opened on Wednesday.
In solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, a local group calling themselves the Black People’s National Crisis Committee, called for the removal of colonial-era statues in South Africa.
Committee spokesperson Songezo Maziz said the statues “are an insult to black people, who still have to deal with the material and psychological repercussions of the colonial conquest”.
There was a similar national movement four years ago when student protestors targetted statues around the country. At the University of Cape Town, another statue of Rhodes was removed following violent protests.
PANA reports that Rhodes was a wealthy British mining magnate who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. An ardent believer in British imperialism, he argued that the white Anglo-Saxon race was "the first race in the world".
-0- PANA CU/AR 15July2020
