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News - Date: 01 March 2002
LOUIS TRICHARDT – In what is now being branded as a massive cultural cleansing operation, the local municipality embarked on an aggressive blitz against all relics pertaining to White history in the civic centre.
Officials in the centre were instructed to immediately remove the bust of Voortrekker Louis Trichardt, the five giant oil paintings in the civic hall, depicting scenes from the founding history of the town and the entire photo archive depicting amongst others the first mayors and councillors of the municipality.
Officials were hurriedly instructed to remove all articles which contain the name of Louis Trichardt immediately after the special meeting last Thursday, on which a majority of rural councillors decided unilaterally to change the name of the town, without consulting the residents of the town.
Although a recommendation that the bust of Louis Trichardt be removed to the Schoemansdal Museum was only accepted during the monthly meeting this week, the bust was already removed last Friday to a storeroom, together with the paintings and framed photographs.
During the course of this week’s monthly municipal council meeting on Tuesday in Louis Trichardt, the mayor, Cllr Brighton Tlakula removed the official mayor’s chain from his neck, explaining that it still contains a Louis Trichardt coat of arms.
The first street name changes announced by the mayor during the special meeting made it abundantly clear that prominent White pioneers from the nineteenth century were the main targets of the change.
The mayor indicated in his prologue to the name change announcement that this was in line with President Mbeki’s concept of an African Renaissance.
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