Afrikaaner groups have petitioned the King of the Netherlands to step in and save the Jan van Riebeeck statue in Cape Town.

This came after a perceived “credible threat” to the statue‚ following an announcement that the EFF was planning a march where it would call for it to be removed.

The planned EFF march‚ which is yet to happen‚ led to Action Forum’s Johan Willemse chaining himself to the statue this morning.

“The EFF are hoodlums‚” Willemse said.

Provincial co-ordinator for the right-wing party Front Nasionaal‚ Daniel Lotter‚ said the vandalism of the Cecil John Rhodes statue at UCT and the one of Paul Kruger in Pretoria was an attack against a nation‚ brought on by earlier comments by President Jacob Zuma.

“This destruction of monuments was a result of a statement by the president in January‚ when he claimed all South Africa’s problems started with the arrival of Van Riebeeck‚” he said.

Monday marked the 363rd anniversary of the arrival of Van Riebeeck on these shores.

Willemse earlier said he would stay chained to the statue until he was removed or arrested.

By 11.15‚ he was released by a handful of supporters and left shortly afterwards.