20 Years of Freedom exhibition starts today

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Pretoria - The biggest exhibition of the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, known as Building the Legacy: 20 Years of Freedom Exhibition, kicks off today at the Tshwane Events Centre.

The unique historical exhibition, which will end on February 9, signals the start of 20 Years of Freedom celebrations in Gauteng, before moving into other provinces.

Visitors to the exhibition will be taken through colonial history, land dispossession, repression, resistance, the transition to democracy and the legacy of the last 20 years of freedom.

The exhibition is aimed at creating awareness, especially among the youth, about the journey travelled thus far and the progress made by the government of the day towards reversing the negative legacy of the 1913 Natives Land Act and related racially motivated laws.

The exhibition features a vibrant cast, including actors from the Gauteng province. It covers three broad themes on colonial and apartheid land dispossession; resistance to colonialism and apartheid and the restitution of land rights to victims of forced removals under the democratic government. 

Chief Land Claims Commissioner, Nomfundo Gobodo, said the exhibition will be interactive, as it gives the participant an opportunity to experience life before colonisation, during apartheid and life post 1994, where South Africans celebrate Nelson Mandela’s legacy.

She said the exhibition will give people an opportunity to “walk through the history of South Africa and actually feel like you were there”. - SAnews.gov.za