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South African President approves removal of apartheid-era monuments
By Emmanuel Awosika
Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa, has approved the removal of monuments that promote the country’s Apartheid era.
He announced this during the celebration of Heritage Day — a yearly holiday that celebrates the country’s cultural diversity.
According to Ramaphosa, monuments and symbols that glorified South Africa’s racist past will not be allowed.
Any symbol, monument or activity that glorifies racism, that represents our ugly past, has no place in democratic South Africa”.
“Monuments glorifying our divisive past should be re-positioned and relocated,” he stated.
The President stressed that the action was not an attempt to erase history. Rather, he said, it was an attempt to be” sensitive to the lived experiences of all this country’s people”.
He added: “We make no apologies for this because our objective is to build a united nation.”
Recently, the movement to remove monuments dedicated to historical figures of the Apartheid era has gained steam in South Africa, particularly from the nation’s Black population.
