Houses of Parliament

In front of you is the Parliament of South Africa. Behind that facade of red brick and white columns some of the most unjust laws of the 20th century were passed, and also the speech that opened the door to democracy was delivered.

1A Victorian building

The Cape Colony had its own parliament from 1854. The building you see was begun in 1875 to a design by Charles Freeman, who was dismissed over foundation problems and cost overruns. It was completed by Henry Greaves, who dropped the planned dome, and opened in 1884. The statue of Queen Victoria that presides over the garden was unveiled in 1890.

2From apartheid to transition

From 1910, with the Union of South Africa, the national Parliament sat here, and only white people could vote for it or stand for it. From 1948 this chamber produced the laws of apartheid: race classification, group areas, separate education. Here too, on 6 September 1966, Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, one of the system's chief architects, was stabbed to death in his seat by a parliamentary messenger, Dimitri Tsafendas.

On 2 February 1990 President F. W. de Klerk announced in this chamber the unbanning of the ANC and the release of Nelson Mandela.

Nine days later Mandela was speaking from the City Hall balcony. In 1994 the Parliament elected by all South Africans met here for the first time. In January 2022 a fire badly damaged the National Assembly chamber, which is still being rebuilt.

3What to look for

• The statue of Queen Victoria, from 1890.
• The columned portico of the original 1884 building.
• Tuynhuys, the white, gabled government residence a little further along the avenue.