CT struggle memorial stolen

2008-03-06 21:08

Cape Town - A Cape Town memorial to two anti-apartheid struggle heroes has been stolen, apparently for its scrap value, even though it was only a stone's throw away from a police station.

The memorial was to students Coline Williams and Robbie Waterwitch, who died in 1989 when a bomb they were handling exploded near the Athlone magistrate's court.

Consisting of life-sized bronzed statues of the pair, on a base of the same metal, it was erected in 2005 as a "mayoral project" by the city's then African National Congresss administration.

It included life-sized statues of Williams and Waterwitch.

Shirley Gunn, director of the Human Rights Media Centre, which has been involved in the creation of struggle memorials in the city, said on Thursday that she understood that vagrants saw men driving a white Mazda bakkie attach ropes to the memorial over the weekend.

They toppled it, but left when the ropes snapped.

The men later returned and loaded it onto the bakkie before driving away.

Called on people to come forward

A security guard on duty in the area told her that even though he phoned the Athlone police station, which is only about 100m from the memorial, police arrived well after the thieves had left.

Gunn said that as soon as she heard of the theft, she contacted current mayor Helen Zille, who had since been in touch with relatives of the two activists.

An official from Zille's office confirmed that he laid a complaint of theft at the Athlone police station on Thursday morning.

Gunn said if the statues were now sitting on a scrap yard, someone in the community had to know about it.

She called on people to come forward with information.

"They [the statues] need to be put back where they belong," she said.

- SAPA