The Congress of the People and the Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication: from public deliberation to bureaucratic imposition in Kliptown

Abstract

Kliptown was the site of the Congress of the People in June 1955 where the Freedom Charter was adopted – the culmination of two years of public deliberation. Fifty years later, in 2005, the Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication, a memorial to the Freedom Charter, opened on the same site. The new Square and a set of related buildings were built by the Johannesburg Development Agency as part of the Kliptown Redevelopment Project. The article begins with a brief review of Kliptown's history, especially on the fringes of apartheid, and then explores the new Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication, which stands in stark contrast to its surroundings. The article continues with comment from local residents about the new Square. In an effort to understand what happened in Kliptown, it reviews the process by which the new Square design was chosen and the level of community involvement in the development of the Square. The section ‘Memorialising Kliptown’ briefly contrasts the Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication with the District Six Museum and explores the concept of heritage as tourism. The article concludes ironically that in the era of democracy, in Kliptown – the home of the Freedom Charter – space for public deliberation has been severely curtailed.

Keywords:

• Kliptown
• Freedom Charter
• development
• community participation
• heritage
• memorial

Notes

1. The research for this article was done as part of the author's Masters in Writing at the University of the Witwatersrand. Another article, inspired by the same research, was published in the Digest of South African Architecture in 2008.

2. See Congress of the People (1955) for the full text of the Freedom Charter.

3. Interview with Eva Makoka in Kliptown, Johannesburg, 8 November 2006 and 17 November 2006. Please note that all those interviewed for this research gave permission to be quoted.

4. Interview with Bob Nameng in Kliptown, Johannesburg, 17 November 2006.

5. Interview with Francina Mazibuko in Kliptown, Johannesburg, 15 November 2006.

6. Interview with Gene Duiker in Kliptown, Johannesburg, 2 November 2006.

7. Interview with Graeme Reid in Parkwood, Johannesburg, 4 December 2006.

8. Interview with Gene Duiker, Kliptown, Johannesburg, 2 November 2006.

9. Telephonic interview with Jody Morrison, Johannesburg, December 2006.

10. Interview with Pierre Swanepoel in Forest Town, Johannesburg, 6 March 2007.