President Thabo Mbeki will open a site in Pretoria set aside for Freedom Park on Sunday, a heritage and cultural museum, to be constructed next year.
The park, which will be composed of a monument, a garden of remembrance and a museum, was commissioned by the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology in 1998.
It will commemorate the country’s diverse history, beginning with the continental formation 3,6-billion years ago to the present post-apartheid South Africa.
Lindiwe Gadd, CEO for the Freedom Park trust, said the trust aimed to create a project that would acknowledge and communicate the history of all the peoples of South Africa.
Gadd said Freedom Park would be different from all other projects that had gone before it because it would adopt a broad narrative addressing the gaps and distortions of past.
This theme will be seen in the three aspects of the 54 hectare park, with the monument, garden and museum all aiming to include all South African communities in South Africa without singling out one specifically.
Gadd said the interactive museum would aim to achieve a level of excellence in design and technology while still incorporating ways in which indigenous cultures preserved their history.
”Freedom Park will not just be about arts and culture, but will tell the story of our national identity and the values that are common to all South Africans,” Gadd said.
The park will target South Africans with the aim of contributing to national reconciliation and nation building.
Government has allocated R350-million for the development of the site at Salvokop Kopje in Pretoria, beginning with the research for the museum and then the design and construction of the park. – Sapa