Pretoria - As part of national efforts to commemorate the life of South African icon and the first black President of a democratic state, Nelson Mandela, Brand South Africa on Wednesday lit up Constitution Hill in Johannesburg.
Constitution Hill will be lit up daily from 6pm to 2am in the colours of the South African flag until the nation bids a final farewell to Mandela on Sunday.
Entrance to Constitution Hill is free.
The event on Wednesday was attended by a range of stakeholders including Brand South Africa trustees and CEO Miller Matola, Chairperson Chichi Maponya, Paul Fray, Rick Menell and Stavrous Nicolaou.
Constitution Hill forms an integral part of the fabric of South Africa’s history since it represented the brutality of both the famous and the infamous being incarcerated in the Old Fort Prison Complex, commonly known as Number Four.
Ordinary people who were arrested under the Pass Laws, which restricted the free movement of black South Africans, were most commonly held at Old Fort Prison Complex, now Constitution Hill.
Some of the most notable detainees were:
1908: Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Passive Resistance Movement against the Pass Laws for Asians (Satyagraha) who was jailed with many other Indians for refusing to carry a pass.
1955: Participants in the Defiance Campaign, led by the ANC to fight against apartheid laws, were jailed after signing the Freedom Charter.
1956: Many of the 1956 treason trialists, including Nelson Mandela, Albert Luthuli, Joe Slovo, ZK Mathews, Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, Helen Joseph, Moses Kotane, Lillian Ngoyi and Ruth First, were imprisoned in the Old Fort, the Awaiting Trial Block and the Women's Jail.
1958: Albertina Sisulu and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela were among the hundreds of women imprisoned for protesting against the pass laws.
1960: Robert Sobukwe, leader of the Pan African Congress (PAC), as well as other anti-pass campaigners were arrested and imprisoned after marching to the Orlando Police Station.
1960: Scores of activists were imprisoned under the State of Emergency, including Joe Slovo, Reverend Douglas Thompson, Rica Hodgson, Violet Weinberg and Rusty Bernstein.
1964: A group of 'suspected communists', including Esther and Hymie Barsel, Ivan Schermbrucker, Eli Weinberg, Norman Levy, Constantinos Gazides, Paul Henry Trewhela, Lewis Baker, Jean Strachan, Anne Nicholson, Sylvia Neam, Florence Duncan, Mollie Irene Doyle, were imprisoned.
1976: Tens of students were detained during the Soweto Uprising as well as leaders of organizations including Fatima Meer, Winne Madikizela-Mandela, Nomakhaya 'Kayo' Ethel Mafuna, Oshadi Mangena-Phakathi, Nikiwe Deborah Matshoba, Mapitso Lolo Tabane, Cecilie Palmer, Vesta Smith, Joyce Piliso Seroke, Jeannie Noel, Sally Motlana, Sibongile Kubeka.
1980: Activists accused of treason in the early 1980s who were imprisoned included Alan Fine, Rob Adams, Barbara Hogan, Hanchen Koornhof, Lillian Keagile, Joe Thloloe and Reverend Cedric Mayson. – SAnews.gov.za
