J.G. Strijdom is Very, Very Dead.

Of the larger South African cities, Pretoria was historically the most intimidating for black people. There was a time when we were not even allowed to walk on the pavement alongside white people. When they passed, we had to walk in the street. It was the seat of the Afrikaner government and everywhere fascist architecture proclaimed their indisputable rule. At the heart of the city is a granite Opera House that looks over the central square dominated by a giant bust of J.G. Strijdom, a 1950s National Party Prime Minister. At one time apartheid dictated that black people were not even allowed to walk across the square, let alone linger there. With the onset of democracy, South Africans were faced with a dilemma about what to do with such places. For one, we could destroy the bust and perhaps rename this bastion of apartheid. Instead, we chose to reclaim this place and make it our own. There has been much discourse in South Africa about the symbols of apartheid. Pule Diphare´s film shows that in the midst of it all people have chosen to merely get on with their lives. The giant granite symbols of the past have had no option but to watch helplessly and silently. Sylvia Vollenhoven, INPUT National Coordinator for South Africa