Steve Biko a landmark model - Page 1 of 2
Media Release
For Immediate Release
28 November 2012
Heritage landmark for Biko a model for SA
The legacy of Steve Biko will be turning into a unique international when a centre as big as an urban shopping mall will be officially opened in in the Ginsberg Township of King William's Town in the Eastern Cape Province on 30 November 2012. The festivities will end on 2 December 2012.
The National Heritage Council congratulates all the stakeholders for contributing to the consciousness of the South African people through this innovative facility.
“We have realised our desire to steer the preservation of heritage towards economic development innovations that contribute to social upliftment of the society. The people of Ginsberg are fortunate to have shared the same space with the legendary Biko whose history is a defining moment of the nation’s heritage,” says Adv. Sonwabile Mancotywa, The CEO of the NHC.
The NHC spearheaded a conference of Heritage and Development in 2005 where the reorientation of how the country can establish memory landmarks was explored. Among the recommendations was the importance to make heritage relevant to society and positioning it as an economic resource. The Steve Biko Centre has lived to this ideal. It is a heritage development model that can be replicated in other parts that has the same socio economic potential.
“This initiative can be replicated in other parts of the country where the NHC has identified and linked sites to the liberation struggle. A project of the NHC, the Liberation Heritage Route that also recognises the Steve Biko Centre, is underway to place these sites of significance in a position to develop into nodal points and tourist landmarks,” says Mancotywa.
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Further information:
Please contact:
Mr. Danny Goulkan
Communications Manager
National Heritage Council (NHC)
Office: 012348 1663
Mobile: 072952 2260
Email:
Editor’s Note
The Liberation Heritage Route (LHR)
The Liberation Heritage Route (LHR) is a project of the NHC that seeks to identify and develop precincts on the sites of historical and heritage significance. The LHR reflects the supreme sacrifice for the freedom of South Africans. It is about the recognition of people, communities, events, places, icons and recording of epoch-making stories which had a significant impact on the South African struggle for liberation.
It is a post-liberation agenda to symbolise the national liberation struggle and to fight against forgetting the critical milestones which mapped the way to the freedom of the country. Through the LHR the South African government seeks to document, preserve the memory of the liberation struggle through research, identification and protection of heritage sites. The LHR is about telling a coherent story on the road to freedom and to symbolise the eminence of the liberatory stories. This initiative is being utilised to advance the national imperatives of nation-building, national identity and social cohesion.