Cape Town - The planned reburial on Heritage Day of skeletal remains kept at UCT and recently found to have been sourced unethically, during the 19th century, has been postponed.
UCT is caught in a row between two groups which claim the Stuurman skeleton is their ancestor.
UCT planned to bury the skeleton in Sutherland, because it believed Stuurman was from that area.
It made contact with a descendant of Stuurman in the area to have the reburial on September 24.
However, a second set of descendants, in the Eastern Cape, approached the national department of arts and culture to put a stop to the reburial in Sutherland.
Edmund, from Uitenhage, said his family could be related to the Stuurman skeleton and asked UCT to do a DNA comparison “to determine who is family and who is not”.
The skeleton is part of nine sets of skeletal remains UCT wants to return to their “descendants” in Sutherland because it believes they were “obtained unethically”.
Edmund said deputy vice-chancellor for transformation, Professor Loretta Feris, refused to do the test. “I don’t know what she’s afraid of,” he said.
He said UCT still had to prove to the rest of the Stuurman families in the country that “these sacred remains belong to the Stuurmans of
Sutherland”.
“We all know the original place of the Stuurmans is Gamtoos in the Eastern Cape,” Prince said.
UCT spokesperson, Elijah Moholola, said “as indicated previously, UCT did not and will not conduct any DNA testing”.
Moholola said UCT continued to engage with relevant stakeholders.
“The engagements were necessitated by the feedback received in writing from the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) on August 12. UCT wrote to SAHRA formally applying for a reburial permit. In response, SAHRA recommended that UCT should have extended engagements with the relevant stakeholders.
“The university held a meeting with the Stuurman representatives in August as per, among others, the recommendation by SAHRA for more extensive consultations. All the relevant Stuurman families from the Eastern Cape, Northern Cape and Western Cape were invited to the meeting.
“However, the Stuurman family from the Eastern Cape could not make it to this meeting, which went ahead with the Stuurmans from the Northern Cape and Western Cape,” he said.
Regarding their planned engagement, deputy-director of planning and evaluation, Alicia Monis, said in a letter to the Stuurman family in Port Elizabeth the meeting with Feris would take place on October 2 at 11am at the Eben Donges Building.
Monis requested the family members confirm their attendance, “especially the number of people who will attend”. She promised to forward them an agenda in “due time”.
Edmund said the history of the Stuurman’s dates back to 1752, as recorded in Dutch journals, during a time when “our great ancestor Klaas Stuurman was born at the Gamtoos River mouth”.
He said Klaas Stuurman, captain of the Khoi, led a revolt from 1799 to 1803, and was recognised by the English and Dutch governments at that time.
“David Stuurman, his son, took over the captaincy when Klaas was killed in a hunting accident. David Stuurman’s history is well documented. We, as the House of Klaas and David Stuurman Eastern Cape, believe that the remains at UCT are from the same lineage as these two great men from the Gamtoos River valley area.”
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