Constitution Hill, Wits end

First and foremost, Joyous Christmas and Happy New Year.
I'm - we're - celebrating in Cape Town. Betty's Bay, to be precise, at a friend's family's cottage by the coast. Jacqui arrives in the Cape today.

Very briefly, here are some snapshots from an inspiring visit to Constitution Hill, two days before I left Jo'burg. Constitution Hill is the former site of a prison notorious for brutal treatment of political prisoners. It has been transformed into a memorial site and seat of the highest court in South Africa, the Constitutional Court. Various symbolisms are magnificent: the bricks from some of the prison buildings were carefully removed and reused on the walls of the court. As my guide said, with beaming pride, a place where justice was denied has become a place where justice is safeguarded. The walls of the court's lobby are glass, representing transparency.



Constitutional Court in SA's 11 official languages, in rainbow colours.




















The fundamental liberties enshrined in the Constitution, carved onto the towering doors to the Court building.


















The Court lobby. Just outside is a sidewalk that connects directly to a road. Constitution Hill is close to downtown, but is intentionally an open space with open gates, or no gates from some directions, and no high walls.












Court Chambers. The doors are open; anyone can enter without an appointment. And there are glass panels with a view of the streets outside. This is the apex court!












The black prisoner section... How tragic and ironic that sky, the embodiment of freedom, is caged in with barbed cables. Here's a row of solitary confinement cells.
























Sentry guardhouse for black wardens, in the black section. Discrimination pervaded everything, absolultely. They would climb up via a ladder, which white superintendents would then remove. Whoever was on nightwatch would have to stay up there the whole night, even through freezing winters.














Images from that visit are seared in memory. While Malaysia has its 'Palace of Justice' with grandiose design and closed doors, South Africa's Constitutional Court is humble, steeped in meaning, not megalomania.


Bidding farewell to the University of the Witwatersrand, a great place to be for two months. Finally, I took some pictures:



The Great Hall




















Mall in front of the Great Hall. The nucleus of campus.