During the dark apartheid days, Pretoria's Central Prison was a place families and members of the then banned ANC avoided at all costs. It was a place where combatants who were found guilty of terrorism were sent to die.
This week, hundreds of families of mostly political prisoners who were executed in the 1960's were allowed to visit the once feared prison.
The gallows were dismantled in 1996 after the Constitutional Court abolished the death penalty. The refurbished gallows at Pretoria Central Prison have been out of use since 1989, the year of South Africa's last execution.
This week, more than 200 family members were allowed to visit the brutal site to try and make peace with the past.
South Africa has since the demise of apartheid in 1994 been hard at work to reconcile and make peace with its brutal past.
Correctional Services Minister, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, ordered that the gallows be restored and opened to the public to preserve its history. And according to the correctional services, the Gallows Memorialisation Project is government's "attempt to bring closure to the families of struggle cadres".
Prison authorities say at least 4 300 prisoners were executed. It is estimated that at least 130 political prisoners were executed there.
Source: The Africa Report, December 14, 2011
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