IT TOOK some journeying, disagreements and politicking before consensus was reached on the design of a monument that would ideally commemorate an historic South African moment, when the first Indian indentured labourers landed in the country in 1860.
Through interventions from the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Arts and Culture with relevant role-players, MEC Mntomuhle Khawula and others will be involved in sod-turning ceremony for the monument in Durban next week.
The monument's site is expected to be near where the labourers initially landed in Durban, on board the SS Truro.
Just as their journey was documented as being an arduous one, reach agreement on the finer details of the monument was akin to ship on the sea without a rudder.
The mission to position a monument in Durban was given the go-ahead in 2010, which was meant to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the labourers in the country.
Indecision, disagreement and the lack of political will were all contributing factors in the monument mission running aground.
But the project was revived in 2015 and seemed to have had new impetus with the more than R4million government injection of funds and a sod-turning ceremony.
However, the ill-fated monument went off-course yet again.
Apart from the finger-pointing and blame-game that happened, another hold-up was the dispute among role-players over the monuments design, in particular, the "slave-bell" that it carried.
Those opposed to the presence of a bell believed it carried a ocean of negative connotations.
That impasse and other issues were resolved last month during a meeting led by MEC Mntomuhle Khawula and his department.
Featuring prominently in the new design is an indentured couple with a child and a bale sugar cane.
Prince Ishwar Ramlutchman Mabheka Zulu, who was also part of the initial monument committee, said the latest version was a true reflection of the hard- ship faced by indentured labourers.
“More so for future generations to come, we’ll be leaving a legacy that they will be inspired when they look at this monument because it resembles the hardship they once endured to where the Indian (community) are now at,” Prince Zulu said.
He said that after four or five generations, descendants of indentured labourers were now professionals in a variety of fields, including politics.
“This is a real victory for the Indian community to be honoured by the government, which is the true reflection of their hardships and what they sacrificed for the country,” Prince Zulu said.
“And we thank the government for listening to the community and their cry because there was a time when we were not being heard. The bell design was just thrown at us, not even put out into public, but just thrown at us to accept.”
The Global Girmitiya Centre South Africa's secretary, Pradeep Ramlall, said: “You cannot destroy the ethos of the suffering of the indentured people that came to South Africa and you cannot represent it by symbols that don’t bring out our cultural heritage, beauty, and our struggle against colonialism."
Ramlall said at last month's public meeting, they objected to what was being proposed.
“We are now satisfied with the monument that reflects the aspiration of the indentured communities, who came here at that time.
“There was a unanimous decision calling for the removal of the bell and installing a monument that showed an Indian woman with a baby and a man carrying sugar cane and also with a knife, representative of the culture at that time,” Ramlall said.
The 1860 Indentured Labourers Foundation, Verulam, and former exco member of the organ- isation, Anand Jayrajh, said: “I’m happy to hear that some compromise that has been made. I’m looking forward to the completion of the project because that’s the most important thing.”
The department's spokesperson, Ntando Mnyandu confirmed that MEC Khawula had intervened in a long-standing dispute between two factions around the use of a bell.
“All matters related to the design and accessing the site for the purpose of erecting the monument have since been resolved and finalised.”
Khawula was expected to lead a sod-turning ceremony in March, signalling the beginning of this historic project that has seen a series of turbulences and delays.
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