Speaking notes by Minister EN Mthethwa

on the occasion of the tabling of the report on

transformation of the Heritage landscape, Tshwane
Friday, 23 February, 2018.

Programme Directors:
Director General: Mr V Mkhize.
Esteemed members of the task team.
Senior managers present.
Ladies and gentlemen.

We have gathered here this morning to deal with a matter

of national significance, that is a memory of a nation. A
nation, which does not know and honour its past, is like a
tree without roots.

This gathering is also significant in the context of the

celebrations that our people and their government will do
in honour of two significant figures in our historiography,
that is President Nelson Mandela and Ma Nontsikelelo
Albertina Sisulu, who had they lived, they would have
turned 100 years old this year.

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Last year we celebrated the centenary birth of that African
son who strode the globe like a true African colossus,
Oliver Reginald Tambo.

All of these were done not merely to tick the right boxes
but to reclaim our past and honour the contributions that
they made in service of humanity.

For the majority of the people of this country, the

continued public presence of apartheid monuments and
places with offensive names is like putting salt in a fresh
wounds.

The building of a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and

prosperous society amongst others hinges on our ability
of eradicating all vestiges of colonialism and apartheid
racism.

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The Rhodes must fall movement should be commended
for initiating an important conversation of the identity of a
nation under the new dispensation. It made us to think
and rethink on what should and should not occupy our
public spaces.

In a paper that I will be taking to Cabinet in the near future

on the issue of Nation building and Social cohesion, I
make the following observation:

The debates around public statues and

activities that involved defacing it, have also
elevated another dimension of nation building.
This has all the hallmarks of frustration but it
has brought to the fore the need to find
common ground on how the transformation of
the heritage landscape should be treated.
However, we need to undermine the activities
that limit possibilities of learning from our
history. The advocacy for not repeating the
past is in no way an advocacy for celebrating
a past riddled and mired in injustices.
Superficial debates and activities should be
quarantined by mobilising and engaging
communities.

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The paper continues:

“The challenge for nation building and social

cohesion currently is thus to deconstruct this
apartheid social structure, not just only in
terms of new laws, since this has happened
already through successive progressive
policy positions. Rather, the task, which
admittedly seems somewhat onerous, is to
deconstruct this apartheid social structure in
the psyche of many South Africans and
harmonise it with the ideals and aspirations of
the new dispensation, as envisioned in the
Freedom Charter, Reconstruction and
Development Programme (RDP), Constitution
of the Republic and later the National
Development Plan”.

Monuments are not innocent pieces of architectural work.

They embody a strong symbolical power.

Monuments, Statues and place name project the

foundational values and authority of the state. They serve
a legitimising role in society, cultivating popular

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acceptance and consent to the authority of the state.
Consent derives from identification with the state. This
implies that people have to embrace the values espoused
by the state.

Monuments are therefore a constant, public reminder of

the foundational values of the state and those in power.
Their role is to conscientise the public.

It also clearly shows to ordinary citizen the linkage

between memorialisation and political order.

Monuments like place names are a repository of the past,

which satisfy two needs – one existential and the other
political.

Existentially, place names speak to the irrepressible urge

within mankind to assert identity. Place names thus
become an outward manifestation of how people
perceive themselves, both their history and value system.

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Colonial monuments are indicative of cultural prejudice
and political expediency. Settlers regarded themselves
as standard bearers to be emulated by the conquered
natives. The natives were assumed to lack a history worth
celebrating or preserving. Colonialism was touted as a
civilising mission, converting the natives into the image of
the settlers. Linked to this was a political strategy,
designed to shore up colonial oppression.

Construction of monuments and Naming of places, is not

a neutral exercise. It is mediated by power relations,
depending on the political order. Monuments in colonies
reflected the cultural assumptions of the ruling settlers.

Overall, colonial monuments and names reinforced

spurious claims to ownership over territory.

They are employed in service of ideological re-

inforcement.

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Place names serve as a public text that both
communicate and affirm public identity.

The foregoing suggests that colonial history unfolded in

the absence of Africans. Africans may have been
physically present, but were invisible. They did not make
history, but were subjects of history. History was made by
the white community and their historical figures, hence
they deserved the honour of being included in
monuments.

Of course, removal of statues is not the end-goal. It is part

of an on-going project towards transforming our society,
to make it humane for black people. Relocating statues of
the old-order simply adds impetus to our collective
endeavour to realise the dream of a just and non-racial
society.

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Our struggle for national liberation draws from African
identity and history.

The contention was meant to refute colonial claims that

the indigenous people are unfamiliar with democratic
practice and would have remained undeveloped without
a colonial agency.

The past, especially anti-colonial heroes and victorious

battles, was also used as inspiration to anti-colonial
resistance. A strong part of the legitimacy of the
nationalist movement, therefore, was its promise to affirm
and validate African identity and history.

To conclude my contribution, I want to express my

appreciation of the work done by members of the Task
team, Dr S Fikeni; Dr M Ndletyana; Dr Denver Webb; Dr
Cecil le Fleur; Ms Luli Calinicos; Mr Johnny Mohlala; Ms
Alana Bailey; Mr Evelyn D Ferreira; Dumisani Sibayi; Mr
Thendo Ramagoma

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Considering the work before us the American slave by the
name of Frederick Douglas uttered the following words:

“if there is no struggle there is no progress.

Those who profess to favour freedom and yet
deprecate agitation are men who want crops
without ploughing up the ground, they want
rain without thunder and lightning. They want
the ocean without the awful roar of its many
waters”

Thank you.