June 14, 2004
By Lebofsa Masha
ANOTHER site has been added to Johannesburg's ever-growing list of heritage sites, with the official opening of the restored Drill Hall on 11 June.
Presiding over the occasion, Johannesburg's executive mayor Amos Masondo described the Drill Hall as "a nerve of struggle and political activity".
It was here that in 1956, 156 leaders of the liberation movement, including Albert Luthuli, Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela, appeared on charges of treason when the complex served as a courtroom.
"Bus boycotters from Alexandra and Evaton came to the Drill Hall to consult on whether to keep on walking or accept a compromise offer on their fares," Masondo added.
The Drill Halll now forms part of the historical and cultural tourism trail of the inner city.
Photo by Enoch Lehung
The Drill Hall was built in 1904 and was used by the military until 1992. The recruitment and mobilization of the army for both world wars was conducted from the building.
The complex is one of the development portfolios managed by the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA), a City agency that seeks to stimulate and support area-based economic development initiatives throughout the Johannesburg metropolitan area in support of the Joburg 2030 vision.
The Drill Hall is already the headquarters of the Rand Light Infantry, and also houses Johannesburg Child Welfare Society, the Johannesburg Community Chest and the Joubert Park Project.
Zakes Myeza, JDA's acting CEO, said that "sensitivity to the historic significance of the Drill Hall was top of our minds when the site was conceptualised", and it was particularly pleasing that project architect Michael Hart had received a merit award from Architecture South African journal for his concept and design of the hall.
Mayoral committee member in charge of inner city development, Sol Cowan, outlined some of the complex challenges facing the City but reiterated that the inner city was on a firm footing. "Some of these challenges are easy to describe and quantify, while others have more to do with perceptions than hard facts," he said.
Cowan discussed the five pillars on which the Inner City Regeneration Programme rests:
- intensive urban management;
- upgrading and maintenance of infrastructure within the City;
- the Inner City Regeneration Programme;
- sinkholes, which are properties that are degraded, poorly maintained and overcrowded; and
- ripple effect investments, which are the opposite of sinkholes - developments that help uplift surrounding areas.
Ripple effects uplift adjacent areas by providing an incentive to private investment, Cowan said. "In some instances the initial investment is made largely by the public sector, like the Drill Hall, Metro Mall, Constitution Hill, and Newtown."
Between the official speeches, a community drama group performed a depiction of South Africa's history, demonstrating the brutality of apartheid and the path to democracy. Singing political slogans from days gone by and waving three flags from different eras - the Union Jack, the old South African flag, and the new South African flag - the group reminded the audience of their right to be "proudly South African".
A special guest was Caroline Motswaledi, wife of the late Elias Motswaledi one of the treason trialists. Motswaledi described how she had suffered during apartheid and was detained while five months pregnant with her first child. "But I am lucky," she added, "because some people died while I am still alive and well."
Elias Motswaledi died on 10 May 1994, the day South Africa's first democratically elected president was inaugurated.
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