Prisons, Courts, Stadia and Vuvuzelas

Today was a fairly busy day!  In the morning we visited Constitution Hill, the site of the former prison that housed, amongst others, Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi.

It was in the prison here that Gandhi's political activism really started.  The prison, which in now a museum, had an exhibit of Gandhi's imprisonment in South Africa.  This was particularly fascinating for me as, although a few years ago now, I have visited the location in India where he spent his final days and was assassinated.  The prison also hit home how difficult it must have been to be non-White in South Africa under apartheid.  In one of the courtyards there was an apple tree.  When apples developed on the tree, prisoners would chose one whilst it ripened then eat it when it was ready.  If prisoners misbehaved, their apple was confiscated when ripe, which must have been completely demoralising.

The site now houses the South African Constitutional Court, the equivalent of the United States Supreme Court.  The courthouse includes part of the old prison as a reminder to all of the past of South Africa, whilst also showing the way forward to a better future.  The courthouse contains significant amounts of South Africa's history, with large sections of the building employing architectural features symbolising the older rural courts that were held in the shade of a large tree.  The building also abides by the principle of transparency, with easy access to the public galleries for all as well as windows from the courtroom directly onto the street outside.  Media access to the building is also surprisingly easy, something I believe that South Africa does significantly better than the United Kingdom as, where it is the court dealing with constitutional matters, the decisions it makes should be as open as possible.

The South African Constitutional Court

After this we went to Soccer City/FNB Stadium which hosted the World Cup final in 2010.  The match was the Soweto Derby between the Kaizer Chiefs and the Orlando Pirates.  Most of our group decided to support the Chiefs, however we lost 4-3 on penalties, which was disappointing as was most the the footballing skill throughout the entire match, yet the atmosphere more than made up for it.  Most people complain about vuvuzelas, yet being in a stadium full of them it was fairly atmospheric!

Soccer City/FNB Stadium

Better be off now - we've ordered takeaway and it should be here soon!