Vandals cut nose off bust of Cecil Rhodes in ‘dreams of empire’ protest

A bronze bust of British colonialist Cecil John Rhodes has lost its nose to vandals who cut it off with a power tool. The statue, which sits in a temple-like Rhodes Memorial on the slopes of Devil’s Peak outside Cape Town, was also daubed with graffiti in the incident. One slogan read: “Your dreams of empire will die.” Officials have increased security in Table Mountain National Park after the attack.

Living he was the land, and dead, his soul shall be her soul!

Rudyard Kipling quotation beneath the bust

Rhodes, who died in 1902, is a divisive figure often seen as a segregationist who made a fortune in mining and grabbed land from the local population. Vandals have previously targeted the bust, putting a tire around its neck and setting it on fire in an act eminiscent of “necklacing,” a kind of lynching carried out against suspected black collaborators with apartheid. South African police said they were investigating the attack, which they called a case of “malicious damage to property”.

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