Square: from flame to filth

Site in Kliptown commemorates the Freedom Charter.

- Abdul Salim Nkosi

In the shade of a tree on a sunny day, Isac Matate set up a rickety bookstand in a ragged square that was once a beacon for the struggle that ended apartheid in South Africa.

Some of the books that Matate packed into the shelves held together with rope touched on the themes of the landmark: political history, black consciousness, the Bible.

The site in Kliptown outside Johannesburg commemorates the Freedom Charter of principles that guided the decades-long fight that ended white-minority rule in 1994.

Around 3,000 people of all races gathered here in a historic act of defiance 70 years ago to draw up the charter, which inspired the liberation movement and lives in the text of the post-apartheid constitution.

Its principles, such as "The people shall govern", "All shall enjoy equal human rights" and "There shall be work and security", are written out around what was meant to be an eternal flame.

But the flame has long been dead and the memorial—included last year in Unesco's world heritage sites of "outstanding universal value"—is today in a state of neglect, vandalism and filth.