The Minister of Correctional Services Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula will on Thursday, 15 December launch the Gallows Memorialisation Project, at the Pretoria Management Centre (C-Max Prison). The Department of Correctional Services is well advanced in its preparations for the inauguration of a memorial museum to honour all political prisoners executed at the gallows in CMAX Correctional Centre in Pretoria.
A wall in the gallows with individual plaques for each of the 132 political prisoners executed will be unveiled on 15 December 2011 by State President Jacob Zuma. . Families of all executed prisoners will also be taken to two cemeteries in Pretoria- Mamelodi and Rebecca Street- where officials of the National Prosecution Authority’s Missing Persons Task Team will assist them to locate graves of their loved ones. On the same day an expected 300 family members will visit the gallows where they will have an opportunity to grieve for their loved ones.
The Minister of Correctional Services Ms Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said "The intention of the project is to initiate dialogue amongst all South Africans in order to bring about healing, facilitate unity and social cohesion and around this painful part of our history.
Not only is it the intention of this project to honour those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom but also to expose generations to the mistakes of our past so that they may never be repeated ". She also added that it was her hope that the project will also make all South Africans recognise why the death penalty has been abolished and has no place in our new Constitutional framework.
The event will take place as follows and members of the media are invited:
Date: 15 December 2011
Time: 8h00
Venue: Pretoria Management Area (C-Max Prison), No.1 Potgieter Street, Pretoria
Kindly send your name, media house and contact details for RSVP to: Tshidi Mapole
Cell: 076 478 3620
E-mail: matshidiso.mapole@dcs.gov.za or tmapole@webmail.co.za
Tshifhiwa Magadani
Tel: 012 307 2925
Cell: 073 936 5405
E-mail: tshifhiwa.magadani@dcs.gov.za
