The symbolic anti the Zumster monument was erected this week in the Groot Marico in the North West Province. It comes as a protest against the erection by the North West Provincial Government of a monument for Zuma that will cost about R1,7 million.
AfriForum submitted two separate applications in May and June this year to obtain information about the erection of the official Zuma statue. There was also an earlier announcement that a larger statue would be erected at a cost of R6 million but the North West Government decided on the smaller monument after opposition from opposition parties and the community.
Celebrations at he protest monument was cut short right after the erection of the symbolic monument, however, when bystanders started threatening the AfriForum and AfriForum Youth delegation with violence and destruction of their equipment.
Tiaan Oosthuizen, AfriForum’s District Coordinator for the North West says “it is sad that politicians can influence a community to the extent that it becomes riotous. Groot Marico is in ruins and the community does not realise that the money can rather be used to upgrade infrastructure and provide informal settlements with basic services”.
Oosthuizen also says that they had to leave the town as a result of threats and violent actions. “This was only activism to illustrate our unhappiness, but it quickly turned into a racial issue. We will never approve the erection of this monument.”
