EFF calls on Parliament to investigate the removal of apartheid-era statues

A motion by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) for an ad hoc committee of Parliament to investigate the removal of apartheid-era statues and memorials has found little support during a mini-debate on Friday.

While the red berets supported by the MK Party have argued these symbols glorify colonialism, the majority of political parties said they are an important reminder of the country's painful history.

Those opposed to tearing down statues said it would also be a costly exercise that could not be justified against the backdrop of high inequality and unemployment.

Making the request for the establishment of an Ad Hoc Committee on behalf of EFF leaderJulius Malema, the party's chief whip, Nontando Nolutshungu, said removing statues was not an attempt to erase history.

She argued they could be preserved in museums instead.

"The presence of these statues reflects the persistence of oppression in the present. The dispossession they represent has not been undone."

But African National Congress (ANC) MPs said processes were already underway withinthe Department of Sport, Arts and Culture to determine how to deal with undesirable markers of the country's past.

The Democratic Alliance (DA), Inkatha Freedom Party( IFP), Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus), Patriotic Alliance (PA), and ActionSA all said they were not in support of the wholesale removal of the country's apartheid-era statues, which could instead serve as teachable symbols.

The DA's Willie Aucamp said the EFF's call was divisive and a costly distraction.

"The DA says South Africans deserve a parliament that is focused on the real struggles of the people of this country, such as poverty, unemployment, inequality, hunger, corruption and failing municipalities."

In reply, Nolutshungu said her party is calling for the country's history to be characterised correctly rather than to celebrate those who created the inequality that exists today.

A final vote on the matter will be put to a full house of the National Assembly.