{"id":20640,"date":"2018-11-25T07:53:32","date_gmt":"2018-11-25T05:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=20640"},"modified":"2018-11-25T08:06:43","modified_gmt":"2018-11-25T06:06:43","slug":"university-of-the-free-state-to-get-rid-of-boer-leaders-statue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=20640","title":{"rendered":"University of the Free State to get rid of Boer leader’s statue"},"content":{"rendered":"
The University of the Free State announced yesterday that the historical statue of M.T. Steyn, the last president of the former Boer Republic that came to an end in 1902 is to be “relocated off campus”. In recent years, the university has been prone to antiwhite sentiment, including attacks on statues representing white people.<\/div>\n
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According to a statement released by the university, “Council furthermore requested that the relocation must be done in complete cooperation<\/div>\n
with the family of President MT Steyn. The decision of the Council follows a recommendation made by the ‘Special Task Team’ in a report to the Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Francis Petersen, that the statue should be relocated to a site off campus.”<\/div>\n
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Prof Francis Petersen (left) making the announcement last night that MT Steyn’s statue will be removed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe decision was not taken lightly, but I believe that it was in the best interest of the university,\u201d said Prof Petersen. The “Special Task Team” was appointed earlier this year by Prof Petersen “to develop and implement a framework on engaging with a process to review the position of the<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

statue in front of the Main Building on the Bloemfontein Campus.”<\/div>\n
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Black students and communist radicals started to object to the MT Steyn statue as far back as 2003, and objections to “the statue of the white man” were again raised during a University Assembly on 28 April 2015. In<\/div>\n
January 2018, the university\u2019s Integrated Transformation Plan (ITP) work stream dealing with “Names, Symbols and Spaces” embarked on a process of “reviewing how space and symbolic representation facilitates or hinders social inclusion in a diverse community”. Representations of white people were seen as “hindering diversity”, therefore the MT Steyn statue had to go as “a priority”.<\/div>\n
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On 8 March 2018, the black-dominated Student Representative Council (SRC), once again asked for the MT Steyn statue “to be removed”. Prof Francis Petersen, a radical coloured academic that used to be with the Cultural-Marxist-infested University of Cape Town, and then nominated to be vice-chancellor and principal of the rural University of the Free State, “acknowledged the urgency of the matter and appointed the Special Task Team to review the position of the statue”.<\/div>\n
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According to Prof Petersen, the relocation of the statue to a site off campus<\/div>\n
will best serve the university\u2019s vision for the future. \u201cThis includes ensuring that the UFS is a place where everyone feels welcome, where<\/div>\n
diversity is encouraged and celebrated, where concepts such as<\/div>\n
decolonialisation are challenged in an academic and realistic<\/div>\n
way, and where integration is accomplished in a holistic manner<\/div>\n
\u2013 as reflected in the ITP,\u201d he said.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The Integrated Transformation Plan (ITP) of the university is meant to “racially transform” the institution in keeping with the overal “transformation” ideology of the ruling ANC-terrorist regime of South Africa. According to the university, “as established in the ‘Names, Symbols and Spaces’ work stream of the Integrated Transformation Plan, the university\u2019s statues, artworks, names, and memorabilia should facilitate social inclusion in a diverse community and reflect a transformed university. The visual and spatial environments should also promote inclusivity and non-racialism. Keeping the statue in its current position \u2013 elevated and central, in front of the building that houses the university\u2019s executive management\u2013 does not align with the core principles of inclusivity and diversity.”<\/div>\n
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\u201cIn fact, a large proportion of our student body is feeling unwelcome (at least in the specific space in front of the Main Building), as it represents a period in history that they do not feel part of… A comprehensive approach and coherent process will be implemented to reconceptualise the space in front of the Main Building. Members of the Special Task Team will form part of the reconfiguration process,\u201d said Prof Petersen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The University of the Free State announced yesterday that the historical statue of M.T. Steyn, the last president of the former Boer Republic that came to an end in 1902 is to be “relocated off campus”. In recent years, the university has been prone to antiwhite sentiment, including attacks on statues representing white people. According … Continue reading “University of the Free State to get rid of Boer leader’s statue”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2961,"featured_media":20642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[422,3,4],"tags":[1553,12456,12455,4160,1834],"class_list":["post-20640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-news","category-south-africa","tag-diversity","tag-francis-petersen","tag-mt-steyn","tag-racial-transformation","tag-statue"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"","source_text":"","source_url":""},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/mt-steyn.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2961"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20640"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20646,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20640\/revisions\/20646"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}