Centre Court
By Sabrina Dean
The building and the collection of art works held by the Constitutional Court Trust have recently been captured in an interactive DVD tour that was made possible through funding by the British Council in South Africa.
Constitutional Court Judge, Justice Albie Sachs, has been introducing visitors to the meaning and history of the building and its art with a special behind-the-scenes tour through the building that happens once a month.
Filmmaker Lomin Saayman attended one of these tours and was struck by Sachs' passion, sincerity and humour. He felt that this had to be captured before the tour died with the judge's imminent retirement.
The launch of this DVD means Sachs' tour has now been immortalised beyond his time as a Constitutional Court Judge.
Not a secret place
Sachs is adamant about the Constitutional Court being our court- not a secret place. "It's a court for everybody, inside South Africa and outside.
"The building contains so much of what the highest aspirations of our struggle were about."
This is expressed in the architecture and design of the building, inside and out.
Saayman says the story we are told through the DVD is about more than just the court. "It's about those ideals for the constitution as a guiding document that are built into the building."
Personal View
The tour is very personal and Sachs comes across with sincerity as he gives us a glimpse into the sanctums of South Africa's highest judges. He provides a wealth of interesting anecdotes, going into the history, purpose and character of the Court, its building and its art.
One of his fascinating revelations, for example, concerns the court's vibrant colourful carpets. He describes how these carpets, based on prints of existing art, were woven by women in a rural community, outside under the trees with chickens pecking at the ground beneath the weaving frames.
The building is extraordinary, and is made more so by means of the raw insight into what its design characteristics represent.
Limited Edition
According to Saayman, copyright of the DVD is held by the Constitutional Court Trust, and due to this it cannot be distributed commercially. However, he says, "It is a priority to see it distributed to schools across the country as soon as sufficient funding is acquired."
Negotiations are under way to have the tour aired on SABC, and there are other plans in the pipeline for a private entity to distribute the DVD with the court's permission.
In the meantime, anybody interested seeing it can e-mail a request to lomin@number301.com