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National Heritage Monument, a historic addition to the Tshwane landscape Staff Reporter
The Minister of Arts and Culture, Mr Nathi Mthethwa, made a clarion call to South Africans to take a moment and visit the National Heritage Monument that was officially launched on 15 September. Situated at the Groenkloof Nature Reserve, the iconic attraction celebrates South Africa's struggle for freedom and democracy and will eventually include 400 life-size bronze statues of pre-colonial, colonial and anti-apartheid struggle heroes and heroines. The manner in which the statues will be placed will be known as the Long Walk to Freedom, which will be the site's most significant element, because it will be seen as South Africa's intangible cultural heritage foundation. Mthethwa, hand in hand with the Gauteng Premier, David Makhura, Arts and Culture MEC, Molebatsi Bopape, and Tshwane's Executive Mayor, Cllr Kgosientso Ramokgopa, unveiled the first 56 of the 400 statues that will become part of South Africa's cultural heritage landscape. Addressing delegates at the event, Mthethwa said, "The National Heritage Monument is a place of learning, a place of growth, and a place of self-reflection. It is a place for us to connect with our inner selves and go through the odyssey of the history of our people. This also poses a challenge for us to uphold the principles and values of our national heroes. These visionaries have left indelible footprints in the contours of
our liberation landscape." Cllr Ramokgopa said the launch was a celebration of the superior value system embodied in the lives and exemplary conduct of the heroes and heroines of our struggle for liberation in South Africa. "The erection of this National Heritage Monument represents for us an act of ossifying the foundations of a value system codified in the birth certificate of our democratic society, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. By unveiling the statues today we are merely pledging our single-minded and undivided loyalty to the injunctions of our Constitution." The National Heritage Monument will be a heritage site that epitomises intangible aspects of our inherited culture, a culture that will tell the South African story, enable us to share our diversity and propel us to continue working towards nation building and social cohesion.