Apartheid architect DF Malan will be out of sight, but not necessarily out of mind, when African National Congress delegates gather in Stellenbosch on Monday.
While much has been written about the irony of the ANC hosting its 51st national conference in a hall named after Malan, no one was sure what would happen to his bust which dominates the foyer.
Would Malan’s monument be covered by an ANC flag, removed for safekeeping or be allowed to remain?
However, an inspection of the hall on Sunday showed that language diversity in a democratic South Africa has triumphed over Afrikaner nationalism and its monuments.
Malan’s bust is conveniently concealed by five interpretation booths and delegates will be spared having to file past the effigy of the man who led the National Party to power in 1948 and against whose administration the Defiance Campaign was launched.
A technician told Sapa there were no orders from above to hide Malan’s bust, but that it was a matter of practicality. There was insufficient room in the conference hall for the booths, and the interpretation facilities had to be built in the
foyer.
While Malan’s bust is out of sight, there has been no attempt to hide the hall’s pedigree.
Three massive ANC banners on the outside of the University of Stellenbosch hall are flanked on the right of the building by Malan’s name.
It was also on December 16, 1949, that Malan in a speech commemorating the then Day of the Vow, spoke of his vision of South Africa becoming the ”land of the white man”.
Under the new democratic order, the day is now Reconciliation Day, and will see President Thabo Mbeki officially open the ANC conference on Monday. Among the guests of honour will be Malan’s heirs in the New National Party, in line with the new co-operation pact between the NNP and the ANC.
Those who fought in the liberation trenches along with the ANC, like the Pan Africanist Congress, have not been invited. – Sapa