Pretoria’s Paul Kruger statue vandalised again

The statue’s face and hands were covered with red paint and the word ‘killer’ was painted on it. The fence built to protect the statue was damaged while the statues of the two Boer soldiers were also spray-painted.

Metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said the cost to clean the statue was estimated at around R200 000. He called on residents to refrain from damaging public monuments.

“Public monuments are supposed to be preserved, appreciated and protected,” he said.

“It is sad that to protect public monuments, we also have to fence or cage them.”

Mashigo said the metro, unfortunately, could not afford to deploy security to all public monuments across its seven regions as this ‘would be expensive and unsustainable’.

Mashigo also said the metro would and had never considered removing the statues since it formed part of the metro’s cultural heritage.

“Furthermore, all heritage resources are protected by the National Heritage Resources Act of 1999. Therefore, before any monuments or statues can be removed, the public and relevant stakeholders must be consulted with.”

He said the metro, in collaboration with its heritage stakeholders, would continue to educate the public about the importance of preserving these monuments for future generations.

A case of vandalism had also been opened with the police by the metro.

Meanwhile, Voortrekker Monument and Heritage Foundation managing director Cecilia Kruger said the Paul Kruger statue had been vandalised several times in the past.

“In 2015, the statue was allegedly badly defaced by EFF members. This was instigated by the Rhodes Must Fall movement.”

Let us all agree that statues do not teach history. They were constructed to celebrate and venerate certain figures. If those figures do not deserve that status any longer then there is no reason to keep them in the public fora. We do not need them to learn stories of our past. https://t.co/bK1y48uKUs

— Mmusi Maimane (@MmusiMaimane) June 22, 2020

Other statues like the Kruger and Strijdom ones in Krugersdorp were also defaced. The Hertzog statue on the campus of the University of the Free State was overturned and thrown into a dam.

“The Hertzog statue has since been removed,” said Kruger.

She said the Kruger statue on Church Square used to be a very popular tourist attraction and many vendors and photographers made a living by selling their products or taking photographs for overseas tourists.

“The metro did what they could to protect it, by putting up a fence in 2015.”

“Unfortunately, this took away the attractiveness of this tourist site and also deprived quite a few people of their income.”

Kruger said despite the safety measures by the metro, no one could tell if the Paul Kruger statue was ever safe. She said the metro could, however, do more to beef up security around the statue.

“I suppose police could patrol the site, but that will cost a lot of money and scare people away. I think more should be done to teach our own people who pass the square every day as well as tourists on the significance of our leaders by adding statues and information panels in all of our official languages. ”

She said money would be better spent this way.