Chairperson, I hereby give notice that at the next sitting of the Council, I shall move:
That the Council -
1) notes with utter dismay the vandalism of the statue of Umkhonto we Sizwe member Nokuthula Simelane at the Bethal Cultural Precinct in Mpumalanga on Monday, 24 January 2011;
2) further notes that -
a) Nokuthula Simelane was a compatriot and member of the ANC who mysteriously disappeared in 1983 while preparing to attend a graduation ceremony at the University of Swaziland;
b) her family searched for her in Swaziland and other neighbouring countries and later discovered that she was killed by the apartheid security forces when she entered South Africa from Swaziland and is believed to have been tortured by the Vlakplaas operatives; and
c) her remains have not been found to date and the Mpumalanga provincial government unveiled the statue in 2009 to honour the selfless sacrifice and heroism of Simelane and that the Simelane family has since come to regard her statue as the grave of this heroine of our people;
3) takes this opportunity to condemn in the harshest possible terms this blatant act of utter disregard and disrespect for the sentimental value of the statue to the Simelane family, the people of Bethal and the ANC;
4) acknowledges that this is nothing but a camouflaged act of racism, which must be isolated and defeated in our society; and
5) congratulates the police for their swift action that led to the arrest of a Mr Corn van Tonder, who is currently out on R5 000 bail.