Artist Beezy threatened over  Xhosa Louis Botha by Tarzan Mbita
	A controversial city artist received a death threat and condemnation from some passing Africaners when he draped the statue of Boer general Louis Botha in traditional Xhosa garb. Artist Beezy Bailey decided, as part of the One City Festival to "shake the old order" by dressing the statue of "Farmer, Warrior and Statesman" Louis Botha on Stalplein, outside Parliament, in the style of an Umkhwetha or Xhosa initiate. But the intriguing change of persona did not go down well with at least two passers-by. One threatened to shoot the artist, and asked: "Why don't you go and do that to your own people?"
Culture shock: the statue of Louis Botha adorned in Xhosa initiate's clothing by artist Beezy Bailey
In another instance, a woman screamed: "This is disgusting!" But a slightly shaken Bailey was not deterred from putting the finishing touches to his work. Ironically, the general was a good personal friend of the artist's grandfather, and Bailey remembers being told moving stories about him. "With due respect, I don't want to offend the Afrikaners, but he is not relevant to the present set-up." Bailey said the concept of initiation was more relevant to the majority of the people inside and outside Parliament than a statue of a Boer general. The work was done "to symbolise the initiation of our country into democracy and in the spirit of the African Renaissance, but basically to support the festival in the city". Bailey has the statue wearing an isidlokolo (traditional hat), his face painted with ingceke (white ochre), wearing an ingcawa (blanket) complete with stripes. Mr Bailey is satisfied that Members of Parliament are behind the project, which he says he would like to be a permanent feature of "our divided city". One man asked anxiously: "It is a joke, isn't it?" The City of Cape Town has given permission for the new look, but things will have to change back to normal tomorrow at the end of the festival.