Apartheid Museum Totally Explained

Everything about The Apartheid Museum totally explained

The Apartheid Museum is a museum complex in Johannesburg, South Africa dedicated to illustrating apartheid and the 20th century history of South Africa. It is owned by and located on the grounds of Gold Reef City, and opened in 2001.
Visitors Information
It is open from 9-5,seven days a week and costs R25 for adults. An audio guide is available. They say that it takes 2.5 hours to go the whole way around the museum or if you don't read all the information you can complete it in 1.5 hours. There is a coffee shop and bookshop. A proportion of the museum's exhibitions are outside and will be wet if it's raining.

History

The Apartheid Museum is the name given to a complex in Johannesburg South Africa by Akani Egoli – the entity which succeeded in its application for a Casino License. The naming of this entity is now a matter that will soon be heard in a South African court as the trademark owner Mike Stainbank(External Link

) alleges that it infringes his trademark registration in Class 35 . The present structure is owned by and located on the property of the Casino License Holder which trades under the name and style of Gold Reef – a company listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
In 1995, the South African government created a process to grant casino licenses, and established an agency called the Gambling Board. As a part of any bid to build a casino in South Africa, developers are required to demonstrate how their casino would attract tourism and stimulate job growth. A consortium, called Akani Egoli, put in a bid to build a casino and their plans detailed the construction of a complex known as Freedom Park . Their bid was successful, and space was created for this entity known as Freedom Park on the property of the proposed Gold Reef City Casino .
The change from Freedom Park to the Apartheid Museum occurred after the twin brothers Abe and Solly Krok, became aware of The Apartheid Museum™ in a publication which was presented to them . The Krok brothers, in the full knowledge that it was irregular to register a company using a registered trade mark somehow managed to register a company called the South African Apartheid Museum at Freedom Park on 14 August 2001. This company, they say, was formed to manage the affairs of the museum. Ownership and responsibility for the structure remained in the hands of the License Holder. The trade mark The Apartheid Museum registered in Class 41 in 1990 and in Class 35 in 1998 was on the register at the time of the registration of the company and it was on the register at the time of the opening of the structure in November 2001. It was registered to one Arnold Michael Stainbank – better known as Mike Stainbank – a Black South African who spent twenty years developing the concept to tell the story of colonialism and apartheid under this trade mark. This company, The South African Apartheid Museum at Freedom Park, was put forward as the company which was illegally using the trade mark “The Apartheid Museum” and this then became the company which applied to expunge Stainbank’s trademark. The matter went before the court of Judge Brian Southwood and the decision went against Stainbank. For three years, stunned by the logic and reasoning of the judgment, Stainbank undertook research and investigation and found, among other disturbing things, that Judge Southwood, before he was elevated to the bench, had in fact been engaged by Abe and Solly Krok in a trade mark matter when they ran a skin whitening cream company. In his matter taken to the South African Constitutional Court(External Link

), 3 years too late unfortunately – Stainbank argued that the judgment was a clear sign that Judge Southwood(External Link

) ought to have recused himself from the case. The construction costs of this structure called The Apartheid Museum, according to Gold Reef, were around 80 million Rand, which was paid for by Akani Egoli. It is at this opening in November 2001 that Gold Reef unveiled their structure as The Apartheid Museum and not Freedom Park as presented to the Gauteng Gambling Board. The twin brothers Abe and Solly Krok through the media and elsewhere marketed themselves as: Founders of The Apartheid Museum. The presentation to the Gauteng Gambling Board(External Link

) of 12 November 1997 and the Gold Reef Annual Report of 2000, insists on the erection of Freedom Park. No record exists showing the intention of a "museum" let alone The Apartheid Museum. The trade mark “The Apartheid Museum” is properly registered to one Arnold Michael Stainbank (Mike Stainbank) in Class 35 and is currently in force. (Certificate Registration No. 1998/13337)(External Link

) Work under the trade mark The Apartheid Museum continues as per the vision Stainbank outlined those many years ago. Gold Reef doesn't hold the trade mark – they infringe the trade mark in Class 35, according to papers filed in the courts by Stainbank – Witwatersrand Local Division Case Number 07/31005. Because of Gold Reef problems at the South African Securities Panel, South African media, over the month of February have given the matter much attention.

Design

The museum was designed by an architectural consortium, which was made out of several leading firms. The building was designed to reflect the South African experience and to be centred around a garden designed to replicate the indigenous Veld.
The exhibits were organised and created by a team of curators, filmmakers, historians, and designers to include film footage, photographs, text panels, and artefacts. A series of 22 separate exhibition areas lead the visitor sequentally through the prelude to and history of apartheid, including the situation in South Africa post-apartheid.

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