In damaging the status of Nokuthula Simelane, the young men being charged for this crime showed no respect for the fact that the Simelane family has been deprived of the presence of their daughter and sister for many years since her unexplained and still unsolved enforced disappearance in 1983.

For the Simelane family, the statue of Nokuthula represented their continuing connection with their daughter and sister in the context of their having been denied full disclosure of her whereabouts at the TRC. There has been no revelation of where Nokuthula is. There is no grave site for the family to visit. There are no known human remains. The statue of Nokuthula is the closest thing her family and those who loved her, have to her body and her personhood. It represents everything about her including her physical body.  Defacing the statute represents a denigration of Nokuthula’s body and presence.

Khulumani is committed to building authentic social reconciliation in South Africa through supporting actions that hold individuals fully accountable and that also providet hem with opportunities to make redress to those they harmed. Political reconcliation in South Africa has yet to be translated into social reconciliation. It has in the view of many political commentators suffered further harm through the racial taunts that have characterised the most recent local government elections in South Africa.