JOHANNESBURG (AFP) ??” Max the gorilla.

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) ??” Max the gorilla, who became a national hero in southern Africa for beating up a runaway thief at Johannesburg zoo will be immortalised in a memorial garden.

The zoo has decided to build the site across the pathway from the gorilla being enclosed where Max lived from when he was brought to Johannesburg from Frankfurt Zoo in 1972 until he died in his be motionless early in May from complications relating to olden age, Johannesburg-based newspaper The Citizen said Tuesday.

The 33-year-old primate became a emblem of South Africa's fight against rampant crime in 1997 when he beat up fleeing thief Isaac Mofokeng who had