The Public Art Piece – The People Shall Govern, by Conrad Botes, on the corner of Burg and Church pays tribute to the many men and women that risked so much in the fight against apartheid on this important day in history.
The Purple March was an anti-apartheid protest held in Cape Town on 2 September 1989, four days before South Africa’s racially segregated parliament held its elections.
A police water cannon with purple dye was turned on thousands of Mass Democratic Movement supporters who poured into the city in an attempt to march on South Africa’s Parliament. White office blocks adjacent to Greenmarket Square were sprayed purple four stories high as a protester leapt onto the roof of the water cannon vehicle, seized the nozzle and attempted to turn the jet away from the crowds.
One of the dyed buildings was the Cape Headquarters of the National Party. The historic Town House, a national monument (now known as a provincial heritage site), was sprayed purple and the force of the jet smashed windows in the Central Methodist Church.
