FREEDOM CHARTER SIGNING
Walter Sisulu Square’s heritage of shame as criminals strip it bare
The historic site of the signing of the Freedom Charter in 1955 is under siege by thieves and vandals.
Walter Sisulu Square in Kliptown, Johannesburg, which memorialises the signing of the Freedom Charter, has been stripped and vandalised.
The entire facility is under siege. Large parts of the roof have been ripped off and lights have been stolen. The paving on the grounds has been dug up and the bricks stolen.
The facility includes an open-air museum which explains how the Freedom Charter was written by South Africans of all races. The explanations have been defaced by vandals.
The museum is closed and the hotel is barely operational. The underground parking is often flooded when it rains.
At the conical brick tower, which contains the full principles of the Freedom Charter engraved in bronze, nothing has been left untouched and metal and cables in the facility have been stolen.
Walter Sisulu Square is where, on 26 June 1955, the Congress of the People drafted the Freedom Charter, proposing an alternative to South Africa’s oppressive apartheid policies with an emphasis on a non-racial society, human rights and civil liberties.
Seth Mazibuko, one of the leaders of the Student Action Committee which led the 1976 Soweto uprising, said, “The destruction of Walter Sisulu Square is just one of the indications of how our government does not put up a maintenance and security plan for anything that is about blacks.
“This also speaks to how black history and heritage is undermined and how it is getting distorted … what is happening in Walter Sisulu Square will never happen to the Voortrekker Monument.”
Kliptown, one of the oldest black residential areas in Soweto, nearly 20km from the Johannesburg CBD, was established in the late 1800s. Lack of electricity, poverty, unemployment, crime and drug abuse are rampant in the area.
Lucky Sindane, a spokesperson for the Johannesburg Property Company (JPC), the custodians of the facility, said the facility was handed over to the Kliptown community and that the public must also take care of the facility as the theft and vandalism occurred in broad daylight and in full view of community members.
“It’s impossible for someone to strip the roof without being seen,” Sindane said.
The JPC said plans were under way to refurbish and restore the facility
“Now we have an open tender. We will soon appoint someone who is going to restore Walter Sisulu Square to what it was,” Sindane said. DM
Tell someone who actually cares. A government founded on this declaration clearly doesn’t. The thieves and breakers clearly don’t. And I most certainly don’t.
This is a symptom of general decay in services and law enforcement, and a lack of interest by the locals. The Voortrekker monument doesn’t get preferential treatment from govt; it is however protected by those who care about it. Mr Mazibuko needs to acknowledge that Afrikaners are protecting their heritage; not govt (to the contrary). He’s right however that the ANC government doesn’t care about black history, they care about getting rich and getting re-elected. The irony is that this kind of damage will make p3 of some papers and be out of mind within a day or 2, but let the DA do a digital rendering of the flag burning and everyone loses their minds.
As a city custodian of a property as valuable and as culturally important as this, how is it possible to simply ‘hand it over to the Kliptown community’?
And as for there now being an ‘open tender’, start the clock and the bean counter on how long it will take and how much it will cost to get this restoration done.
And then set a timer to log how much over both of these variables will be.
And then, if this is ever actually completed, how long it takes for it to be trashed again.
But “our people” were told that they are now “free” and that everything in the country is now “up for grabs”, including all the WS Square’s building materials. I’m surprised that “our people” didn’t take ALL the paving stones: there are still some left (in the photo).
Black history destroyed by blacks; so why play the black victim card?
Same as Lilly’s Leaf…. its that maintenance word again!
Fact…
there is s certain social apathy present, the self centered nature of society reflects exactly why it is so important to remember the selfless sacrifices made by all before us weather in the boer war freedom fighters mothers etc. if we remember with respect it will keep us humble. the present lawlessness prevents this and we head into a downward spiral towards arnarchy
An example of the same decay of he ANC “rulers”
An example of the same decay of he ANC “rulers”
The last I heard of Lovedale College in the Eastern Cape, the alma mater of many of the early ANC leaders, was that it is also in a state of decay. Public heritage is a public matter and this news is a sad summing-up of the ANC’s degeneration. But the question isn’t that abstract. Pointing at the ANC (whatever the ANC might mean anymore) has become a bit pointless. They are no longer a viable concept. Reality boils down to people – real people – and their commitment or their lack of commitment. A sad low-key kind of anarchy or anomie (or something far less important-sounding) seems to prevail.
This history is suppose to be a living memory of the fight to become a better country but alas that same fight has not saved those who vandalized. Its means nothing when it now stands for nothing.
I am not defending those guyz at all, but our country or the country which I was born is not developing the people so that they become productive members of our society. Some of these fellow citizens may suffer from unemployment. What is the use for us or for me or for you or for them to celebrate the signing of a document. Document ndini that no longer or has never held any political significance apart from the fact that various television politicians mention it in passi
Hahahaha