9/2/228/0035

The former prison and military fort at Constitution Hill bears testimony to over a hundredyears of South Africa’s turbulent past of oppression, gross human rights violations and theextent that oppressive governments would go to in enforcing controls to suppress thoseopposing their policies. Prisoners incarcerated here included many world-renowned men andwomen who stood and fought against suppression. The wide range of prisoners includedPrisoners of War during the South African War (or second Anglo Boer War), striking whitemineworkers, protestors against South Africa joining the Allies in World War 1, to thoseopposing colonial and Apartheid oppressive laws such as Mahatma Ghandi, participants inthe Defiance Campaigns and other anti pass protests, the 156 Treason Trial accused,women involved in Struggle and students from the Soweto Student Uprisings and thousandsof men and women who transgressed petty apartheid laws. With the development of theConstitutional Court on the site after 1994 new meaning of hope and democracy was givento the site and juxtaposes the brutal past of the prison, contrasting the injustices withprevalence and protection of justice, a place where all freedoms were once stripped away toa place where human rights and freedoms are enshrined and protected.