Former chamber of death opens to public

On November 7 1989 warders on Pretoria Central Prison's death row shouted the eerie "baadjies en adres" call for the very last time.

The dreaded call was a signal that the sheriff of the high court had arrived at the prison with warrants of execution. Prisoners for whom the warrants were intended would be hanged in seven days.

"Baadjies en adres", literally "jacket and address", meant the prisoners should bring their personal belongings and two addresses to which the belongings should be sent after their execution.

On that fateful November day, prisoners knew that death was sure and certain. What they didn't know was that the curtains would be falling on the death penalty, and that Solomon Ngobeni would be the very last person to hang in South Africa.

Warders made their way to Ngobeni, whose crime is not recorded but who was not a political prisoner, and took him to the "feedback room" where a sheriff and the prison head informed him that his appeal had failed.

Following the meeting, which lasted barely 15 minutes, the condemned man was weighed and his height measured so the hangman could prepare the right size and length of rope.

Ngobeni was hanged on November 14.

Three months later, in February 1990, then president FW de Klerk placed a moratorium on all executions. Five years after that, capital punishment was abolished.

The death row, built in 1966, saw the execution of more than 3500 people, of which at least 134 were political prisoners.

In 1996, the gallows fell into disrepair and were dismantled.

More than 20 years after Ngobeni's execution, South Africans will get the opportunity to relive its horrors.

Today, President Jacob Zuma will officially open the first phase of South Africa's Gallows Memorial, a project conceived by Correctional Service Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.

Visitors will be able to walk the 52 steps of the four-storey staircase to the death chamber.

Each landing will feature a short biography of the lives of political prisoners hanged there, including the African Resistance Movement's John Harris, hanged in 1965, Zibongile Dodo, hanged in 1968, Vuyisile Mini, hanged in 1964 and Solomon Mahlangu, executed in 1978.

In the death chamber, a rack is suspended from the ceiling and fitted with seven nooses. Under the rack is a trap-door with seven pairs of painted foot soles, reserved for the maximum number of inmates who could be hanged at once.

Next to the door is a phone that never rang - meant for last-minute acquittals, pardons and amnesty. The chamber's walls now bear plaques with the names of the 134 political prisoners who were executed there. The youngest was 18. The oldest, 70.

The hangman would double-check, for the last time, the identity of the prisoner. Hoods were placed over their heads, they were walked to the trap-door and nooses were placed around their necks.

The hangman would pull the lever and the condemned would fall three storeys down to a "catchment area". They would hang there until the prison doctor declared them dead.

Families were not allowed to see the corpses. The final journey was to the prison grave site, where they were buried according to race.