St Georges Mall

About this audio guide

This guide to St George's Mall follows a single slab of the Berlin Wall standing on a Cape Town pedestrian street, with nothing to do with the city's own history of divided ground. It traces the slab back to 1996, when Nelson Mandela traveled to Berlin and was offered a piece of the wall, reportedly walking the leftover concrete himself to choose this exact segment. You'll hear about the argument over where such a strange trophy should stand, and the decade it spent parked outside a Waterfront car showroom before anyone settled it. Run your eye along the concrete as you read the plaque in front of you.