[3][4] His testament also influenced the founding of the Jan Marais National Fund (HJMNF), which still continuously awards about R20 million every year towards a number of different developmental projects in South Africa in support of the Afrikaans language.
[5] The statue is placed in the centre of the main campus, where a multitude of students from different social and cultural backgrounds continuously walk past it every day.
[9] Statues and other visual symbols can evoke a variety of emotions and feelings in people, especially in a nation with a history of apartheid-related division and difficult circumstances.
[10][11][12] The protest aimed to raise awareness and reflect on the presence of the statues from a colonial past within South African university campuses.
The statue of Marais was the target figure as he is regarded as a symbol of white supremacy that looms over the campus and upholds an ongoing legacy of segregation and colonization.