The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Heritage Task Team wants the municipality to renovate and preserve dilapidating historical buildings in Port Elizabeth.

Johannesburg - As part of the celebrations of the 20th anniversary of former President Nelson Mandela's release, the Victor Verster Prison has been named a memorial site.

"The Victor Verster Prison will be considered a memorial site which depicts the experience of the struggle for liberation in South Africa," National Heritage Council CEO Sonwabile Mancotywa announced on Wednesday.

The prison outside the town of Paarl, which is now known as the Drakenstein Correctional Centre, is where Mandela spent the last years of his 27-year-long imprisonment.

Mancotywa said the prison will affirm and assert the liberation heritage which will be showcased not only to South Africans but to international visitors.

Briefing the media on the eve of the commemoration of Mandela's release, Mancotywa said the house will receive world status recognition as a heritage property of universal value when it is finally listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as part of the National Liberation Heritage Route (NLHR).

Through the NLHR, the council hopes to restore all significant accounts of events, places, epochs and individuals.

Nigeria: Daura City Gates, Kusugu Well for Reconstruction - The Emir of Daura, Alhaji Faruk Umar Faruk, has pledged to use thirty million naira (N30m) from his personal resources in order to reconstruct three old city gates and the famous "Kusugu well" monument in the emirate. [AA Construction]

Kenya: Old Buildings in Country Should Be Preserved - From the Railway Station in Nairobi to Makerere University in Kampala, East Africa is home to several grand, colonial-era buildings. [AA Urbanisation]

South Africa: Alexandra - A History - Alexandra: A History is a social and political history of one of South Africa's oldest townships. [AA Urbanisation]

For more information on these engravings and this site we recommend that you visit:

http://www.driekopseiland.org

The site is based on a thesis:
Morris, D. 2002. Driekopseiland and "the rain's magic power": history and landscape in a new interpretation of a Northern Cape rock engraving site. Submitted to the University of the Western Cape for a Masters Degree (Anthropology) awarded Cum Laude in March 2003.

By Proffesor Ndawonde

Pretoria - Government is to honour the life of Sarah Bartmann by establishing the Sarah Centre of Remembrance, the Sarah Bartmann Human Rights Memorial and the Khoi-San Heritage Route, during the month of March.

These sites will be opened during the month of March by the Department of Arts and Culture to acknowledge the tribulations and trials of Sarah Bartmann and the role that the Khoisan people played in the struggle against colonialism and racism by hosting the series of events.

The events will form part of efforts to address the historical imbalances in the heritage sector in South Africa.

Ms Bartmann has become an icon of oppression and colonialism, systems that systematically stripped Africans of their dignity.

Other events include an academic colloquium at the University of Western Cape will focus on issues such as gender oppression, de-humanisation and objectification of women, stereotyping, racism and genocide.

The Sarah Bartmann Centre of Remembrance architectural competition will be unveiled on 7 March in Hankey, Eastern Cape Province.