Union Buildings – praag.org

Mandela lying in state at the Union Buildings

The body of Nelson Mandela, globally feted as a revolutionary, is lying in state at the Union Buildings, Pretoria, built by the hated Anglo-Boer government of 1910 and designed in a eurocentric, neo-classical style by British architect Sir Herbert Baker.

According to the South African government, Mandela’s remains will lie in state for three days under a glass cover where members of the public will be able to pay their last respects.

“Ordinary South Africans and guests will be given an opportunity to pay their last respects to former president Nelson Mandela,” the Government Communication and Information System said in a statement.

“The City of Tshwane has activated park-and-ride facilities for the public… Mourners are advised that cameras, including cellphones, will not be allowed at the Union Buildings.”

The GCIS said the Mandela family and heads of state will view the body before the public on Wednesday. The public will have the opportunity to view it from midday until 5pm.

On Thursday and Friday, the public will be able to view the body from 8am to 5pm. – praag.org and government press releases

Union Buildings will get Mandela statue in December

A statue of Nelson Mandela will be unveiled at the Union Buildings by the end of the year, President Jacob Zuma said on Monday.

This would be part of the marking of the building’s centenary.

Zuma was speaking in Houghton, at the official opening of the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory’s public facility and the permanent exhibition on the life and times of Mandela.

“These resources are an integral part of our nation’s heritage,” Zuma said.

“They are our nation’s treasures and they indeed need to be preserved. [The centre] is making a major contribution to integrating liberation heritage and cultural heritage.”

Zuma urged South Africans to continue the values for which Mandela stood in their everyday lives and not just on Mandela Day, when people are asked to give of their time to help others.

He said exhibitions about Mandela’s life were underway in Paris, France and in Washington, in the US.

“The exhibition continues to attract record attendances, proving once more that Tata [Mandela] is indeed a global icon,” Zuma said.

“We are doing these things to thank people of the world for standing with us against apartheid.”

He wished Mandela well in his recuperation at home.

Earlier this year, Mandela spent almost three months in hospital for a recurring lung infection before being discharged on September 1 to continue receiving treatment at home.

Nelson Mandela Foundation trustee Tokyo Sexwale said the centre was dependent on donations and he asked South Africans to contribute what they could.

“This legacy needs to live forever. A time will come when Madiba has to go, but the name lives on.

“Forget the millions of dollars [from other funders], every cent counts.”

Regional radio station Kaya FM, the British soccer club Sunderland, clothing company Edcon and the US Embassy had joined the centre as new sponsors.

The centre, which contains archives collected by the former president’s foundation over the years, will be open to the public.

The exhibition includes a view of Mandela’s old office, a number of the publications in which he has been published, the Nobel Peace Prize he was awarded in 1993 and a number of other artefacts. – Sapa

EFF accused of ‘hijacking’ Mooiplaas protest

The Economic Freedom Fighters was accused of hijacking a march to the Union Buildings by residents of the Mooiplaas settlement, west of Pretoria, on Thursday.

“You are ruining our march. This is not a political party-led event,” said Emely Morongwe.

The residents were presenting service delivery demands to the presidency.

When community leaders were called to hand over the memorandum, EFF members complained about being left out. They pushed each other, and shouted insults at the police.

“You are allowing in whites. This is not a white man’s march,” one of them shouted when the police unlocked a gate to let in a journalist.

Agang SA member Makgoka Lekganyane was booed when he tried to restore order. He was one of three people allowed through the gate to hand over the memorandum, in which residents gave the government 18 days to respond to their demands for water, electricity, and houses.

“Who are you to tell us? You have been paid to interrupt our march… Our leaders are not there,” a man shouted at the EFF group.

The EFF members retreated to the back of the gathering, where they held a meeting. They sang while local EFF leader Peter Motherland read the memorandum.

“You are disturbing us. This is for the community not for you,” shouted a woman.

The EFF protesters, most of them wearing the party’s red T-shirts and berets, arrived at the Union Buildings singing songs in praise of their leader Julius Malema.

“Re suteleng re ya ya, Malema o e tla [Get out of the way we are coming, Malema is coming],” they sang, blowing vuvuzelas as they walked across the Union Buildings’ lawns.

Some carried placard reading: “Juju my commander all the way.”

After the memorandum was handed over, the EFF supporters continued to sing liberation songs. – Sapa

Shots fired at protesters at Union Buildings

The Apartheid Museum reminds visitors daily why violence pays

Shots were fired at protesters at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Tuesday, police said.

“A shooting did take place at the Union Buildings where some people were injured,” said police spokesperson Tsekiso Mofokeng.

No further details were immediately available.

Mofokeng was responding to a statement by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in Gauteng condemning “the shooting of Mooiplaas Community, who were in a process of a peaceful demonstration in Union Building [sic]”.

“Four of the EFF members are arrested while others shot and injured are in hospital,” said Gauteng spokesperson Patrick Sindane.

Mofokeng said he would have more information later in the afternoon. – Sapa

Red October march calls for end to black violence

Almost 600 Afrikaners marched on the Union Buildings on Thursday to protest white genocide. The Red October group released hundreds of red balloons to mark the day while calling for tolerance and warned against hate speech and racism.

The mostly white Afrikaner group, organised by Afrikaans singer Sunette Bridges, delivered a memorandum calling for an end to black-on-white violence and what it termed reverse racial discrimination in education and employment.

“We are not denying that they are being murdered, but they are not being murdered by white people,” said Bridges, when asked why the focus was on white, and especially farm, murders. “And if they were murdered by white people, the international community would have an absolute freak-out.”

The group and its organisers had come under fire from other Afrikaans constituencies for appropriating a traditionally communist slogan for its name on what in previous years had been celebrated as Kruger Day, the birthday of Boer resistance leader Paul Kruger.

Organisers said they were fighting for the rights of minorities, and not protesting black rule.

“Everyone is welcome here,” said popular Afrikaans singer Steve Hofmyer, who acted as a celebrity draw card for the event. “We march to prove that there are South Africans left who won’t acclimatise to the sub-standard.”

Despite arguments that the event was intended to advance minority rights in general, the focus was very much on the rape and murder of white people by black people, something organisers did not shy away from characterising as genocide.

Hofmyer said white people faced an exaggerated threat.

“Immaterial of the statistics, we are not used to this mortality rate, we are not used to being raped in these numbers,” he said.

Crime affects everyone in South Africa, he told the crowd, but Afrikaners had the right to count their own dead. “If we say all deaths should be counted, why do we count the rhinos and not count all dead animals?”

Dr Dan Roodt from Praag said Afrikaners had been disenfranchised and were not allowed to have their own municipalities even in towns and cities where they were the majority population.

“As someone said, even in the reserves, American Indians are permitted to run their own affairs,” he stated. “Yet we are universally denied any say in the running of the country our forefathers built.”