English: An elevated view on the monument "Rhodes Memorial" on the slopes of Devil's peak, close to Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa. Cecil John Rhodes, who died in 1902 aged 49, was an important English-born politician in the then British colony which is today a part of South Africa, a mining magnate and founder of the De Beers diamond company. As the economic differences between different groups of the population are still (as of 2024) large in South Africa, the existence of the extensive and massive monument is a subject of controversy - partly because Rhodes is regarded by critics to have significantly contributed to an economic system which was based on inequality of people with different racial background, and which is partly seen as a kind of precursor to the deeply racist Apartheid regime in South Africa - which was formed some decades after his death - and which was only overcome in 1993.