Cape Town - Amid the heated debate around public art in Cape Town – and the fall of the Cecil John Rhodes statue at the University of Cape Town – a mysterious bronze statue resembling President Jacob Zuma was erected on Lion’s Head over the weekend and quickly destroyed.
The statue, titled The Swordsman of the Nation, was placed on top of the popular tourist destination with an inscription scribbled on its base.
It read: “If a criminal like this can get a statue, so can I – JZ.” It is unclear whether the ‘criminal’ referred to is Cecil John Rhodes or President Jacob Zuma - or both.
The statue, which depicts a short, fat, naked character, was erected with a large sex toy in its hand, evoking the controversy around artist Brett Murray’s painting, The Spear.
By the end of the weekend the statue had been cut in half.
Twitter was abuzz with discussions around the statue, with nobody able to say who made it, or who destroyed it. Some people supported the response to the #RhodesMustFall campaign, while others called it “distasteful” and “stupid”.
From pictures taken at Lion’s Head, it seems many were simply unbothered by the statue.
Hikers are pictured sitting next to it, and one group even set up a water station in front of it.
The lost tomb of Jesus? Scientist claims he has 'virtually unequivocal evidence' that could help explain the whereabouts of Christ's remains
A geologist in Jerusalem claims to have found “virtually unequivocal evidence” that could reopen the controversy over the final resting place of Jesus Christ.
Dr Aryeh Shimron says he has carried out new tests that suggest it is more likely the Talpiot Tomb, a burial site found in East Jerusalem in 1980, was a family grave for Jesus of Nazareth, his wife Mary Magdalene and his son Judah.
Dubbed “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” in a 2007 documentary movie directed by James Cameron, the chamber contained nine burial boxes or “ossuaries” inscribed with the names “Jesus son of Joseph”, “Mary” and other names associated with the New Testament.
The inscriptions and the approximate dates of burial have led some to suggest the Talpiot Tomb means Jesus married, that he fathered a child, and that the existence of bodily remains means the Resurrection could never have happened.
The controversial claims were refuted on a variety of grounds at the time of the film’s broadcast – not least on the basis that the names were all relatively common at the time.
Yet speaking to the New York Times, Dr Shimron has said that geochemical tests on a 10th ossuary make it highly likely the box was recently removed from among the others in the Talpiot Tomb.
That’s significant because the Aramaic inscription on the 10th ossuary reads “James son of Joseph brother of Jesus” – adding weight to the suggestions that the names are those of Jesus Christ and his family.
“The evidence is beyond what I expected,” Dr Shimron said. “I think I’ve got really powerful, virtually unequivocal evidence that the James ossuary spent most of its lifetime, or death time, in the Talpiot Tomb.”
The geochemical tests, carried out under Dr Shimron’s supervision largely by the Israel Antiquities Authority, worked on the basis that the ossuaries in the Talpiot Tomb were all once covered by the same clay with a very distinctive mineral make-up.
While the results are likely to rekindle the debate surrounding the possible remains of Jesus, they are still far from accepted in scientific circles. The collector who owns the James ossuary told the Times Dr Shimron’s work determines nothing “conclusively”, while other Jerusalem archaeologists say they await its publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
