Pretoria -Imagine a garden with 500 full-length statues of struggle heroes throughout South African history, marching in a long winding line towards freedom.
This is television personality Dali Tambo’s dream, along with the City of Tshwane and the Department of Arts and Culture, to develop a garden of statues.
This is proposed for a stretch of land in the Groenkloof Nature Reserve as a monument to those who fought for freedom and unity over the ages.
Tambo’s father, Oliver, allegedly spoke to him from his grave and inspired the idea of the statue garden dedicated to heroes who fought for freedom and democracy in South Africa from as early as the 1600s to 1994.
“When I visit my parents’ graves I actually stand there and talk to them. I told my father that there is no full-length statue of him across the length and breadth of South Africa.
“I asked him what he thought about having one made. And the response I got was that I should not do it for him alone but for all those who struggled and sacrificed for democracy,” he said.
The response was a typical one from his stalwart father, he added.
Tambo is the chief executive of the National Heritage Project Company and this project is in its third year of planning.
Two weeks ago Tambo pitched the idea to Parliament’s portfolio committee on arts and culture.
Some of those who will be represented in the garden are Olive Schreiner, Charlotte Maxeke, King Hintsa, Thomas Mapikela, King Sekhukhune of the Pedi people, Helen Suzman, members of the Black Sash, Lilian Ngoyi and Steve Biko.
“Many of them (heroes) have been forgotten and lost in public memory,” Tambo said of the need for such a monument commemorating past heroes and heroines.
Tambo said the garden would not only be a tribute to struggle icons of the ANC but would include people who over the centuries fought for freedom and democracy.
“It was not one generation that liberated our country. It took many generations who all spent their lives fighting for the cause,” he said.
All races and demographics will be included over the ages, provided they had freedom and unity at the heart of their struggle.
“We regard this as a unity monument. At the heart of reconciliation is the acknowledgement of our history and coming together as people and saying this is our past and looking at all the glorious things about it. These were 500 icons for human rights,” Tambo said.
The statues, of which 48 have been completed, will all be sculpted by South African sculptors.
“We are very fortunate to live in a country with a generous proportion of trained sculptors,” he said.
Some of the statues were on display at the ANC conference at Mangaung last year, and about half were on display in Bloemfontein, he added.
Tambo said each sculptor was given a mandate to properly research their subject, determining their weight, height and dress sense.
“They live and breathe this thing. They have to build a relationship with their subject and reincarnate people who were demonised in their time. And they have to reincarnate them with dignity,” Tambo said.
There is one condition for struggle heroes to be included in the garden – they have to be dead.
At this stage, people like Nelson Mandela and archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu would be excluded, Tambo said.
The timeline would start in the 1600s and work towards 1994, which would be at the front of the line of heroes.
Families or couples, such as Walter and Albertina Sisulu, who were involved in the struggle together, will be grouped together.
Mandela would be at the front of the line because it was his generation that “delivered democracy”.
Tambo hopes to break ground on the garden from June next year.
The entire garden will cost R700-million over five years.
Apart from the winding line of statues, called “the Long March to Freedom”, there will be a visitors’ centre, a formal crafts market, a food market with different ethnic foods typical of South Africa, and a water park where people can swim and be entertained.
“Heritage is the showbusiness of history. We don’t want to create heritage that no one will visit,” he said.
Tambo sees the garden as a “heritage tourism destination” that firstly caters for local tourists and then for international ones.
With other monuments in the area like the Voortrekker Monument, Freedom Park and the Union Buildings, Tambo hopes the garden will contribute to creating a heritage node in the city.
The City of Tshwane approached Tambo for the development of a heritage site and the project is partly funded by the Department of Arts and Culture.
“It is anticipated that the impact on tourism will be a positive one which can position the city as a major tourist destination,” said the City of Tshwane’s Selby Bokaba, adding that the city welcomed initiatives that would boost tourism and stimulate the economy. - Pretoria News