Estátua de Rhodes retirada do Cabo

The University of Cape Town (UCT) has voted to remove a statue of British colonialist Cecil Rhodes that had become the focus of student protests. The monument will be taken down from the campus on Thursday and stored for "safe keeping", UCT's council said. Students have been campaigning for the removal of the statue of the 19th century figure, unveiled in 1934. It was smeared with excrement last month. Other monuments to colonial-era leaders have also been recently vandalised. The campaign has triggered a backlash. On Wednesday, crowds of white South Africans rallied at statues of Paul Kruger in the capital Pretoria, and Jan van Riebeeck in Cape Town, saying they were part of their heritage and should not be targeted. Kruger, a contemporary of Rhodes, was an Afrikaner leader known for his opposition to the British in South Africa. Van Riebeeck was a Dutch coloniser who arrived in South Africa on 5 April 1652. A white protester at his statue held a placard which read: "Hands off our heritage. This is genocide." 'Example to the country' The university's 30-member council governs the institution and is made up of staff and students. In a statement released after the vote on Wednesday, the council said it had immediately applied to the heritage authority to have the Rhodes statue taken down. The council said it would temporarily remove the monument, over concerns for its safety, while the authority considered the application. BBC