Carnegie Reporter, Vol. 4, No. 2 | At The Heart of South Africa: A Constitution & A Court, page 3

The Great African Steps lead to the thirty-foot-tall wooden door at the main entrance to the Court. The door contains twenty-seven panels carved by craftsmen in Durban, depicting the themes of the Bill of Rights in sign language.

Sachs points to three words chiseled into the concrete strip above the door—equality, dignity and freedom—in each of South Africa’s eleven official languages. The words were written by each of the Court’s eleven original justices. Justice Z.M. Yacoob, who is blind, wrote his contribution in Braille.

“Mine is the one up there that looks like the writing of a nine-year old,” Sachs says with a smiling reference to the difficulty in learning how to write with his left hand after losing his right arm.

The Court entrance faces an expansive public square. This forecourt was designed deliberately to facilitate pedestrian traffic and to enable gatherings right in front of the Court, even in protest, if necessary. Chief Justice Pius Langa says such connections with the community are especially important to him. “There is a linkage with the rest of the world,” he says, “and with the rest of the community. I am very aware that we are a part of the community. We are working amongst the people. From my office and from the bench, I see children walking to school. We see cars driving up and down. We see people walking up and down the Great African steps. I walk there with them. It’s liberating to see life as it is.”

Sachs leads the group into the Court’s grand foyer, designed as a gathering place with wood benches placed under angled concrete columns topped by light fixtures made of wire sculptures in the shape of leafy branches. A slotted concrete roof directs changing patterns of sunlight across the floor. The ambiance is very much like a forest clearing that beckons people to linger.

In contrast to many other courts around the world, this is a welcoming space. Sachs asks the visitors grouped around him to name the most dominant element in the foyer. Several point to the glass, timber and concrete that abound. “No,” Sachs says. “It is the light. It is symbolic of the transparency of our new democracy.”

The next stop is the Court Chamber where eleven justices hold hearings on constitutional cases. In the Court Chamber great care has been paid to the interaction of judges and the lawyers appearing before them. The judges are positioned so that they have direct eye contact with those presenting evidence. Thus, no one is looked down upon. And in an attempt to emphasize the Court’s accessibility, there is no amplified speaker system in the Court Chamber, which required that great attention be paid to acoustics.

The hearing chamber is enclosed by a curved wall constructed of bricks from the old prison. These have been carefully cleaned and loosely stacked without mortar. They serve as an ever-present symbol of previous human rights abuses. Perhaps most remarkably, the architects deliberately placed a ribbon-like window directly beneath this wall, giving everyone in the Court a constant view of pedestrians going about their daily lives.

A more recent addition is a new work of art—a stunning beaded and embroidered South African flag, positioned above the judges’ seats in the courtroom. Measuring twenty feet by eight feet, the brightly colored flag hangs in a wave shape, providing a striking contrast to the subdued earth tones of the courtroom. The hand-made flag, which took many months of work to complete, is one of hundreds of artworks featured in the building, making it as much an art gallery as courthouse. The works of both South African and international artists are on display, ranging from carpets created by self-taught Zulu weavers to three Chagall lithographs donated by the artist’s granddaughter.

Sachs is fond of saying that the collection, which is valued at millions of dollars, “collected itself.” He notes that the collection “is very much based on the passion and enthusiasm that the artists and arts community have for the achievement of democracy and what the Constitutional Court meant. The art community really wanted to be a part of this project.”

While the art reflects the work of the broadest spectrum of South African contributors, among others, much of it can be defined as “resistance art.” For example, one piece, a Sachs’ favorite, is called “The Blue Dress.” The artist, Judith Mason, had been listening to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings on the radio. She heard about a woman who had been stripped naked, tortured and shot by the police. The policeman who shot her in the head described the woman’s bravery. She asked if she could kneel and sing Nkosi Sikelele (God Bless Africa) before she was executed. She was buried with a piece of a blue plastic shopping bag covering her genitals. Mason was so moved by the story that she constructed a dress from bits of blue plastic bags and then painted a scene in which a wild dog is tearing at the dress.

Another prominent feature of the Court complex is the Law Library, which was placed at the bottom of the sloped site, on the opposite end of the building from the foyer and Court Chamber. It was designed as the tallest part of the building so that the illuminated glass sides would be a beacon visible from afar. “When we started there were no books on the shelves,” Sachs recalls. “Now, with more than 350,000 books, we have the largest human rights library in the southern hemisphere.”

Chief Justice Langa says the library is being developed into an online resource that will be available throughout Africa, and beyond. Notes Langa, “I think one needs to emphasize that, in as much as we often refer to court decisions in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Europe, it is also as important that we should be aware of what is happening on the African continent. That’s why we’re building an online library for the entire continent to access materials. A lawyer in Senegal, or anywhere else for that matter, will be able to research a ruling by a court in Uganda, for example.”

Langa continues, “All chief judges in Africa have welcomed this project. But one must be aware of the context in which it is being developed: many African courts don’t have the resources or staff they need. Part of the problem in South Africa is that whenever the courts train someone in library and information technology, they run off and get a better paying job.”

Next page: Justice Sachs’ tours wind up in the great foyer, in a symbolic concrete forest clearing.

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