27 Mar 2015

Tutu foundation proposes Graça Machel statue at UCT

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Students walk past a statue of British colonialist Cecil John Rhodes at the University of Cape Town near the city center of Cape Town, South Africa on 7 March 2015. (Schalk van Zuydam, AP)

Cape Town - A proposal to put up a statue of Graça Machel at University of Cape Town (UCT) was raised by Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, in the midst of the ongoing protest against the presence of a statue of Cecil John Rhodes at the Cape Town campus.

“Why are UCT students not discussing the installation of a statue of Mrs Graça Machel on their campus?” said Reverend Canon Mpho Tutu, executive director of the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, in a statement released on Friday.

Calls for the Rhodes statue to be destroyed emerged three weeks ago after a UCT student threw human excrement on it. Students claim the statue represented what Rhodes stood for: racism and white supremacy.

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