Bertie and Julie took me to see the Union Buildings in the centre of Pretoria. The Union Buildings are South Africa’s version of our Parliament buildings. They are public buildings that are the political offices.
When we arrived, the first thing I noticed was the amount of police at the entrances. The second thing I noticed was all of the large tour buses, and then I noticed all of the street sellers with their tables crammed with all sorts of African arts and crafts.
We went up the steps to enter the building and were not allowed access. A police officer told us that we were not allowed to go into the buildings and take photos. These are the offices of the president and we can’t enter because we may pose as some kind of threat.
Bertie was not at all impressed. He said that the police officer was a liar and should come up with a better reason for not allowing us, the public, access to a public building. Apparently before Thabo Mbeki was president, the public had access to the buildings (at least the outside and lower levels).
We left, very disappointed at not being able to see very much of the buildings at all. We were able to see the gardens, which were very nice, and the view of the city from the gardens was spectacular.
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