How do we keep alive the memory of the struggle against apartheid?
We seldom seem to care about preserving the memorials and monuments we’ve erected for those who sacrificed so much to bring democracy to this country.
Pupils from Johannesburg Secondary School participating in an excursion on September 26, 2017 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Photo by Gallo Images / Daily Sun / Trevor Kunene)
Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust death camp survivor Elie Wiesel once said: “Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilisation, no society, no future.”
He went on to help found the United States Holocaust Museum … and elsewhere around the world, Jew-ish and other people have ensured, by preserving memories and erecting memorials, that humanity should never forget and never again allow that to happen.
Wiesel’s words are something we need to take to heart in South Africa. How do we keep alive the memory of the struggle against apartheid, also recognised by the UN as a crime against humanity?
Apart from using it as a victim card to cover up incompetence, we seldom seem to care about preserving the memorials and monuments we’ve erected for those who sacrificed so much to bring democracy to this country.
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Today, we feature two places where important parts of our historical tapestry have fallen into wrack and ruin, despite scores of millions of taxpayers’ money being spent to build or preserve them.
Unless we recognise and honour our past, we are going to end up directionless with no proper road map to the future.
