A group of Khoisan leaders chanted in a circle outside the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Friday morning before appearing for allegedly destroying a concrete bench depicting their matriarch Krotoa.
The eight, all out on bail, stood in the dock in traditional garb that included animal skins, cloaks and headdresses.
The court heard that the investigation against them was incomplete and the case was postponed until November 6.
The accused are Tania Kleinhans-Cedras, Abdullah Barthus, Philida Moses, John Steyn, William Petersen, Francisco MacKenzie, Newton Adams and William Moses.
They face a charge of malicious damage to property after allegedly damaging the bench in central Cape Town on Tuesday morning.
A collective of Khoi organisations felt the mosaic bench was not a proper tribute to their matriarch.
“It was a disgrace for people to sit and fart and urinate on that bench,” headman Joe Damons, of the Western Cape legislative Khoisan Council, said outside court on Friday.
The bench was erected in 2012 in honour of Krotoa van Meerhoof and donated by the Rock Girl Safe Spaces Campaign.
At the time of the first European settlement in the Cape in 1652, Jan van Riebeeck took a young Krotoa into the fort as a servant.
Fluent in Dutch, English and Portuguese she acted as an interpreter and negotiator.
Source: News24
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