Statue of Afrikaner hero defaced in new S.Africa attack
Pretoria (AFP) - A statue of an Afrikaner hero was defaced in South Africa on Sunday, the latest in a series of anti-colonial protests that has forced the country to square its racist past with the spirit of reconciliation championed by Nelson Mandela.
"I wouldn't go up to the Nelson Mandela statue and spoil it with paint," said Jaco Cronje, a businessman standing in front of the paint-splattered statue of the country's fifth president Paul Kruger in Pretoria, the country's administrative capital.
"There's only one word to complete the rainbow nation and that's respect," said Cronje.
A wave of attacks against the country's colonial heritage began in March when young protestors at the University of Cape Town threw excrement at a statue of Cecil Rhodes, eventually forcing the university to remove the statue of the British imperialist. ...