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Constitution Hill gets more dynamic

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Constitution Hill in Johannesburg will finally break ground on phase three of its development over the next few months.

The original plan for the much-loved site, inaugurated in 2004, which includes the Old Fort and prison dating back to 1893, was always intended to include a visitors’ centre.

Now Constitution Hill is getting that and more.

The new visitors’ centre will include a museum of the Constitution along with a living memory museum of ordinary South Africans’ stories. There will be another art collection displayed inside and outside the centre, offices, an event area with a possible skywalk being added to the fort, a ghost projection of a building and numerous partnerships with other leading institutions.

Members of the development team Lwando Xaso and Lauren Segal spoke to City Press about the Constitution Hill Development Company’s new plans, which are supported by the Constitution Hill Trust. The trust is raising funds to supplement a substantial sum contributed by the Gauteng provincial government to develop phase three of the development, driven by Con Hill chief executive Dawn Robertson.

Con Hill is a mixed-use precinct that raises income to pay for its heritage components. Recently invigorated by the inaugural Afropunk Joburg festival, it is also home to the sitting Constitutional Court.

The exterior of one side of the court has windows that allow pedestrians to peer in from the street and watch the court in session. The bricks forming the wall around those windows were taken from the prison’s old awaiting-trial block that had to be dismantled to make room for the court. The remaining men’s and women’s prisons – which at various times housed the likes of Nelson Mandela, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Albertina Sisulu and Robert Sobukwe – are today museums. The foyer of the court serves as a giant art gallery.

“One of the big issues the ex-prisoners have had is the taking down of the awaiting-trial block,” says Segal.

“So we’re going to be using ghosting technology to project that building onto the square and we’ll be using voices of the ex-prisoners who were in that building to bring it to life.”

The new four-storey structure being built is first and foremost a visitors’ centre.

“The site has got these two sides to it and I think that part of its transformation is showing that both can happen here: art and justice,” says Xaso.

Segal added: “The visitors’ centre is the embodiment of the public response to the Constitutional Court and the Constitution – how we’ve used it, abused it, celebrated it, pilloried it. So our entry on the ground floor is a new museum and archive. It’s not just a paper archive, it’s a story archive. It will have all the constitutional papers, but the first thing you see is a story booth, where you can go and sit and tell your story and listen to other people’s stories. How did the law impact on you and your family?”

Says Xaso: “We want to recover people into history. Plus it’s important to have our own archive, that you don’t have to go overseas to find our archive.”

In fact, several other local institutions have been invited to house their archives in the new building.

There will be interactive terminals for visitors to engage with core aspects of the archive, like the Bill of Rights.

Throughout the building will be a new art collection with commissioned works. Above the new museum will be a conference facility and, above that, offices for Con Hill staff.

“And the top floor,” says Xaso, “is an event facility, ideal for something like a restaurant, with a view of the city. Here you can look at a display of contemporary constitutional cases while overlooking the court and then you have a skywalk which you cross to get to the fort and start interacting with the rest of the site.”

To exchange ideas and develop phase three as powerfully as possible, Con Hill has partnered with the Smithsonian’s ground-breaking museum in Washington that celebrates African-American history.

“Last year, the US consulate sponsored a trip for our team to go and look at their museums and the Smithsonian really stood out,” says Xaso.

The founding director of the Washington museum, acclaimed historian Lonnie Bunch, will be travelling to Johannesburg with his team to help open phase three and attend a lekgotla.

“As a country, it seems we’re battling with transformation and it baffles me,” says Xaso. “Here we are taking our history and continuing to understand it, without losing its essence or erasing the past, redefining it.”

“I’m thrilled about the new museum, especially the contribution it can make to our society,” said CEO Robertson.

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