Walter Sisulu Square’s heritage of shame as criminals strip it bare

The historic site of the signing of the Freedom Charter in 1955 is under siege by thieves and vandals.

Walter Sisulu Square in Kliptown, Johannesburg, which memorialises the signing of the Freedom Charter, has been stripped and vandalised.

The entire facility is under siege. Large parts of the roof have been ripped off and lights have been stolen. The paving on the grounds has been dug up and the bricks stolen.

The facility includes an open-air museum which explains how the Freedom Charter was written by South Africans of all races. The explanations have been defaced by vandals.

The museum is closed and the hotel is barely operational. The underground parking is often flooded when it rains.

At the conical brick tower, which contains the full principles of the Freedom Charter engraved in bronze, nothing has been left untouched and metal and cables in the facility have been stolen.

Walter Sisulu Square is where, on 26 June 1955, the Congress of the People drafted the Freedom Charter, proposing an alternative to South Africa’s oppressive apartheid policies with an emphasis on a non-racial society, human rights and civil liberties.

Seth Mazibuko, one of the leaders of the Student Action Committee which led the 1976 Soweto uprising, said, “The destruction of Walter Sisulu Square is just one of the indications of how our government does not put up a maintenance and security plan for anything that is about blacks.

“This also speaks to how black history and heritage is undermined and how it is getting distorted … what is happening in Walter Sisulu Square will never happen to the Voortrekker Monument.”

Kliptown, one of the oldest black residential areas in Soweto, nearly 20km from the Johannesburg CBD, was established in the late 1800s. Lack of electricity, poverty, unemployment, crime and drug abuse are rampant in the area.

Lucky Sindane, a spokesperson for the Johannesburg Property Company (JPC), the custodians of the facility, said the facility was handed over to the Kliptown community and that the public must also take care of the facility as the theft and vandalism occurred in broad daylight and in full view of community members.

“It’s impossible for someone to strip the roof without being seen,” Sindane said.

The JPC said plans were under way to refurbish and restore the facility

“Now we have an open tender. We will soon appoint someone who is going to restore Walter Sisulu Square to what it was,” Sindane said. DM