Support ticket

Mr Sibayi

The previous email sent to you includes the LHR sites on the tentative list.

Based on our commitment to ensuring that any site proposed for World Heritage Nomination already enjoys maximum protection in the Republic of SA in terms of the National Heritage Resources Act, and taking into account the relationship you have with PHRAs - we place great reliance on your good office to facilitate the:

-          Grading

-          Management Plan Development

-          Public Consultation

-          Declaration

Of these sites.  Could you please advise on the best way forward in terms of this.

Please advise if you do not have the document that includes the sites on the tentative list.  

Thank you

Khwezi kaMpumlwana

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Mr Sibayi

In addition to the sites on the tentative list, please take note that there are the following sites that are proposed in terms of the National LHR Business Plan.   All indications are that there is strong interest to do major infrastructure work in these areas, so I would like us to work out a way that confirms the following:

1. Grading status of the site
2. Management Plan status of the site
3. Declaration status and declaration progress of the sites.

I know you will agree with me that if there is to be major infrastructure work, there are implications for conservation, management and declaration status, we would all not want the management plan process to follow after the construction has been done, we would want the infrastructure work to be guided by the CMP.

The tentative list sites are as follows:

Latitude and Longitude, or UTM coordinates

Modelled along the Australian convict sites (Australia’s Tentative List),  the serial nomination of South Africa Liberation Heritage Route will consist of series of sites that in combination express the key aspects of the South African Liberation experience and the Outstanding  Universal Value from the point of view of global history. These attributes will also be reflected in other nominations from Southern African Development Community (SADC) which include Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

In the ongoing process the sites identified are:

1. Robben Island: 33*48’11.33S/18*21’49.41E – A recognized world Heritage property renowned as a place of banishment and incarceration of freedom fighters who are the current political leadership of South Africa.
2. University of Fort Hare: 32*47’17.87S/26*50’45.26E – The first Black University, famous as the learning centre of development and scholarship where most political leadership of both South Africa and Africa were educated, e.g Nelson Mandela (South African), Seretse Khama (Botswana), Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe), Charles Njonjo (Kenya) and others.
3. Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication (Kliptown - Soweto):

26*16’10.70S/27*51’54.62E – A site in memory of Mr Walter Sisulu, but most of all for being the venue where the ANC’s Freedom Charter was tabled at the Congress of the People in 1955.

1. Nelson Mandela Sites such as; Qunu – 31*46’59.08S/ 28*37’02.11E – Home of Nelson Mandela where  he spent his childhood; Mandela House (Soweto) – 26*17’43.23S/27*51’11.83E -  Home of Nelson and Winnie Mandela, renowned heritage site associated with  the liberation history;
2. O.R Tambo Sites such as Oliver Tambo Garden of Remembrance - 26*08’58.33S/28*02’27.01E -  and Oliver Tambo Birth Place (Eastern Cape) -  31*46’59.08S/ 28*37’02.11E
3. Ghandi Square - 26*18’12.22S/27*42’16.73E
4. Regina Munde Church - 26*15’10.24S/27*52’18.81E
5. Mapikela House - 27*55’12.56S/24*1’24.65E
6. Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe House: 28*43’29.50S/24*42’48.90E - Home of the founder and  President of the Pan African Congress (which has been in opposition to Apartheid), where he was placed under house arrest.  
7. Braam Fischer House - 27*45’22.68S/24*44’34.63E
8. Steve Bantu Biko House, Kwa Nongqongqo Prison, Church at No. 15 Leopold Street (King Williams Town) and Zanempilo Clinic: 32*52’32.35S/27*23’23.56E – These are places associated with the freedom struggle  led by Steve Biko
9. Samora Machel Memorial - 29*45’60.08S/ 28*37’02.11E
10. Gert Sibande Memorial - 29*34’62.07S/ 28*43’02.09E
11. Constitution Hill: 26*08’37.64S/28*02’59.01E - Once served as a Goal where the Rivonia trialists were detained and now it is a living museum.
12. Chief Albert Luthuli Museum (KZN): 29*55’05.63S/30*57’39.70E - Home of the first African Noble Peace Prize Laureate, who endured the leadership of the national liberation struggle and received global recognition.
13. Hector Peterson Memorial: 26*15’10.24S/27*52’18.81E - A memorial of the hundreds of students who were shot protesting against the use of Afrikaans as the medium of instructions in 1976.
14.  Sharpeville: 26*31’45.14S/27*52’23.78E – It is associated with the burning of passes as a protest against the Pass laws (under Apartheid), and the shooting that followed thereafter.
15. Sol Plaatjie House: 28*45’22.68S/24*44’34.63E – Sol Plaatjie devoted most of his life as a politician, writer and journalist to the course for the struggle of African people against the injustices and dispossession during the colonial and Apartheid periods.
16. Liliesleaf Farm: 26*08’58.33S/28*02’27.01E – A historical place of the liberation movement where the ANC leadership (Nelson Mandela, Denis Goldberg, Ahmed Kathrada, Andrew Mlangeni, Govan Mbeki, Walter Sisulu, Elias Motsoaledi and Raymond Mhlaba) were arrested.
17. Avalon Cemetery: 26*16’35.28S/27*51’04.59E – A place where many combatants of the struggle are buried.

This is not the total of all sites. As this is work in progress more sites are to be identified and included.

Justification of Outstanding Universal Value:

The South African struggle for Liberation begins with regional wars of resistance against colonial domination, followed by a coordinated national struggle for freedom underpinned by the formation of national movements. The creation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, which excluded the majority indigenous Africans, was a catalyst for the formation of the national movements. The national struggle climaxed during the Apartheid era (1948 – 1994) where gross human rights violations were prevalent. Apartheid was declared by United Nations as a crime against humanity, and therefore the struggle against Apartheid became a universal struggle for Human Rights, freedom and democratic values, as enshrined in the UN Charter (Article 1) and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), as well as the under UNESCO Constitution which inter alia states, ‘since it is in minds of men that wars begin, it is those minds that the defenses of peace must be constructed’.  The struggle for Human Rights, Freedom and Democracy took a “liberation” form when adopted by the Organization of African Union (OAU) culminating in the “liberation struggle” that encompassed most countries of Southern and Eastern Africa, in turn resulting in the attainment of freedom and independence in those countries (e.g. Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Angola and others).

In October 2005, the following Southern African Development Community countries who were largely involved in the liberation struggle sponsored Draft Resolution 33C/29 at the 33^rd General Conference of UNESCO: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, joined by Cote d’Ivoire. On the recommendation of the Commission for Culture (Commission IV) the 33^rd General Conference unanimously adopted “Roads to Independence: African Liberation Heritage”, essentially recognizing this type of heritage as of universal value and significance.

The raison d’ etre for that Resolution was premised on:

1. African Liberation Heritage as a common heritage of shared global values       ( Human Rights, Freedom, Democracy etc )
2. Promoting dialogue amongst nations and cultures
3. Developing and promoting a culture of peace
4. Contributing to the memory of the world
5. Generating data and data bases that raise awareness.

Please advise on your reflection.

Regards

K Mpumlwana