25 MARCH 2010

Dr. Danny Titus talked about multiculturalism in the workplace, nowadays South African workplace is dominated by people from diverse cultures. It is therefore important for a Leader to know how to handle the issue of multiculturalism within the organization.

Leaders must promote cultural awareness or tolerance by learning factual information about the cultures and groups with different backgrounds.
Dr. Danny Titus emphasized that Leaders must not be stereotyped and biased when dealing with diversity, they must teach others about cultural differences, inherit diversity issues in staff meetings at work, recognizes differences as diversity rather than as abnormal behavior and develop skills in cross cultural communication.

In the afternoon we visited Constitutional Hill in Johannesburg.

What is the Constitution hill

The Constitution Hill precinct, located at the western end of the suburb Hillbrow in Johannesburg, is the seat of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. The first court session in the new building at this location was held in February 2004. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_Hill,_Johannesburg

The hill was formerly the site of a fort which was later used as a prison. The Old Fort Prison complex is known as Number Four. The original prison was built to house white male prisoners in 1892.

The Old Fort was built around this prison by Paul Kruger from 1896 to 1899 to protect the South African Republic from the threat of British invasion. Later, Boer military leaders of the Anglo-Boer War were imprisoned here by the British. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_Hill,_Johannesburg

The Old Fort prison was later extended to include "native" cells, called Section 4 and Section 5, and, in 1907, a women's section was added. An awaiting-trial block was constructed in the 1920s.

Both political activists opposed to apartheid and common criminals were held at the prison. Mahatma Gandhi was imprisoned here in 1906, and striking white mineworkers in 1907, 1913 and 1922. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_Hill,_Johannesburg

Under the apartheid government, only whites were held in the Old Fort itself, except for Nelson Mandela, who was given a bed in the hospital section when he was as an awaiting-trial prisoner in 1962 prior to the Rivonia Trial. Joe Slovo, Bram Fischer, Albert Luthuli and Robert Sobukwe were also inmates. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_Hill,_Johannesburg

The site housed prisoners until 1983, when it was closed. In 1995, the Constitutional Court justices began looking for a permanent location for the new Court. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_Hill,_Johannesburg

The purpose of the visit was for us to learn more from the Constitution Library, to learn about the past history of South Africa, so that we can learn to forgive and forget and to learn more about the importance of the Constitution Law in our Country.

Useful website:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_Hill,_Johannesburg