ARTS and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa has called on South Africans to get a fresh take on the signs and symbols in the country’s public spaces.

“We are at the point where we have to rethink our way forward, to do a thorough introspection and retrospection on where we come from. We need to think about how we want our public spaces to look like,” Minister Mthethwa said.

Speaking during the national consultative meeting on the transformation of the heritage sector on Friday in Pretoria, the Minister said decisions made on how the country’s public spaces should look like should be based on the Constitution.

“The debate about the signs and symbols of this country started as early as the dawn of our freedom. It is not a new matter. Beyond the debate, a process started of changing the face, the signs and symbols in country,” Minister Mthethwa said.

He condemned the defacing of statues as the country’s law provided for the removal of statues by following the regulations.

Mthethwa also said the country has some museums and memorabilia that represent the new South Africa. He said all South Africans should despise apartheid and agree that it was a bad thing, as it was classified as a crime against humanity by the United Nations.

“We need to be unapologetic about the painful reminders [of our past]; statues of our oppressors should not be large in public institutions. We need to all come to a point to say, these were key advocates of oppression, colonialism and apartheid.

“These were leaders in their free will. They injected this pain we are talking about, which we have to move from,” he said.

Minister Mthethwa said all South Africans, black and white, need to agree that symbols of colonialism are not needed in public spaces.