Freedom Day at the Union Buildings

Yesterday was Freedom Day which commemorates the first democratic election held in South Africa twenty years ago on April 27. But since the 27th fell on a Sunday this year, Monday was the day off instead. We took advantage of the lack of traffic and business to take the puppies up to Pretoria and visit the new statue of Nelson Mandela which was unveiled in the formal terraced gardens in front of the Union Buildings after his funeral last December.

The Union Buildings is the primary seat of the South African government and houses the office of the President. From its vantage point high above Pretoria, you can see all the way across the city  to the Voortrekker Monument. It was pretty quiet on the grounds of the Union Buildings today. Yesterday was the official celebration - the theme was “South Africa – A Better Place to live in” - and they were still disassembling the parade bleachers and tents where President Zuma gave his Freedom Day address on the south lawn in the shadow of Nelson Mandela.

The buildings themselves were designed by Sir Herbert Baker in 1908 and completed five years later to house the newly established government in charge of the newly united Union of South Africa. In 1994, almost 80 years later, it is where Nelson Mandela gave his inaugural address heralding his ground-breaking presidency and the dawn of a new democratic South Africa and last December it is also where he lay in state after his death and was visited by thousands of mourners.

Vince and I both agree we like this statue more than his dancing version in nearby Mandela Square which coincidentally was originally commissioned to stand at the newly re-christened Nelson Mandela Amphitheater where Mandela gave his inaugural speech 20 years ago on these very grounds. And this version replaces another statue originally sited here, a figure of former prime minister James Barry Hertzog, which was moved to a new spot in the garden in order to accommodate it. Kinda like a huge Gauteng chess match.

Last night we watched Kevin Kline and Denzel Washington (and Downton Abbey's Mrs. Crawley!) in the film Cry Freedom! No question. South Africa now is a better place to live in than then.