WATCH: UCT, Stuurman family remain in talks over ‘unethically sourced’ skeleton
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The Eastern Cape branch of the Stuurman family insist that they want nothing to do with UCT regarding the skeletal remains of their ancestor. Picture: Supplied The Eastern Cape branch of the Stuurman family insist that they want nothing to do with UCT regarding the skeletal remains of their ancestor. Picture: Supplied
Cape Town - The Eastern Cape branch of the Stuurman family insist that they want nothing to do with UCT regarding the skeletal remains of their ancestor kept at the university, and which were found to have been sourced unethically during the 19th century.
Edmund Stuurman from Port Elizabeth said UCT must not involve itself, “this is a family matter which we want to keep to ourselves”.
“They must just give us our
remains and we will deal with them as family”.
Edmund said the Stuurmans would take the final decision and would have a conference of their own.
The family agreed to have further engagements among themselves, including Stuurmans from the Western Cape, Northern Cape and Eastern Cape.
The decision was taken at a meeting with the university and the national Department of Sports, Arts and Culture in Port Elizabeth last month.
UCT flew someone to the Eastern Cape to meet with another set of Stuurmans after it was caught in a
row between two groups that claimed the Stuurman skeleton was their
ancestor.
The Stuurman skeleton is part of nine sets of skeletal remains that UCT wants to return to their descendants in Sutherland as the university believed that they were “obtained unethically” during the 19th century.
Johan Lesley Prince, a Stuurman descendant from Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape, said government officials explained to the university that the family would have the last say.
“I don’t know if they understood it, but the point was made very clearly to them,” Prince said. “We agreed on the way forward. The families in the different provinces will have to come together in the near future to make final decisions.”
However, the Stuurmans from the Northern Cape in Sutherland accepted UCT and were keen to work with it to rebury the remains.
UCT spokesperson Elijah Moholola confirmed that the university had met with the Stuurman family from the Eastern Cape.
“The most recent meeting discussed the planned reburial of the nine sacred human remains that were brought to the university from Sutherland in the 1920s. One of these individuals has the surname Stuurman,” Moholola said.
He added that the meeting had been held in line with the university’s ongoing broader engagement process with all stakeholders.
At first, the engagements were necessitated by the feedback received in writing from the South African Heritage Resources Agency (Sahra) on August 12. UCT wrote to Sahra formally applying for a reburial permit. In response, Sahra recommended that UCT should have extended engagements with the relevant stakeholders.
UCT Vice-Chancellor, Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng, revealed that UCT had 1 021 skeletons, which were used for educational and research purposes in a variety of disciplines.
UCT Vice-Chancellor, Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng. Video: Sisonke Mlamla/Cape Argus
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