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Compiled by the Government Communication and Information System --------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 22 Sep 2005 Title: City to unveil new memorial for Trojan Horse incident --------------------------------------------------------------- By Karen Pretorius, tel: (021) 461-8145 Cape Town - A new memorial is to be unveiled on Saturday to commemorate the Trojan Horse incident at the Athlone site where armed police, hiding on the back of a truck, opened fire on a group of youths. The incident, on 15 October 1985, claimed the lives of three youths, Michael Miranda, Jonathan Claasen and Shaun Magmoed. Briefing the media yesterday, Mayoral Committee Member for Planning, Councillor Themba Sikutshwa, said the new memorial has the blessings of the families of those who died. "We thought it would be appropriate for us to remember them on Heritage Day," he said. The unveiling comes a month short of the 20th anniversary of the Trojan Horse incident, which happened on the corner of Thornton and St Simons roads. The City, he said, is eager to focus also on its "non-colonial" heritage and the original monument, erected in March 2000, "was a bit removed from where the incident took place". The new memorial incorporates a part of the wall, which still bears the original spray-painted names of the victims and messages honouring them. ACG Architects in collaboration with the Human Rights Media Centre was commissioned to erect the memorial, which includes a steel structure portraying the armed police in a truck. A storyboard will tell the history of the event and its relevance today, while transparent memory boxes will add messages and personal belongings of the victims. In the memory box of Michael Miranda, who died at age 11, will be the marbles he played with, which his mother has held on to. Architect Malcolm Campbell grew up in the area, and says the new memorial is meant to provoke a response. "We felt we needed to express the outrage people felt at the time, and therefore the main focus is the graffiti wall," he explained. Shirley Gunn of the Human Rights Media Centre said the Trojan Horse Memorial should provoke people to tell their own stories and relate their own memories. "For us to go forward as a nation, we need to face our past," she said. The new memorial, she said, is informed by the input of the families who lost their loved ones on that day. The Trojan Horse Memorial cost R386 000, including the design, manufacturing, construction and landscaping at the site. - BuaNews |
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