Artist Ruth Sacks was commissioned to create a memorial for Cissie Gool, as part of the Sunday Times 100 Year Heritage Project. The project’s aim was to mark the 100th year of the publication and commemorate the remarkable people and events that made history between 1906 and 2006. Read more about the Sunday Times Heritage Project here. 

Zainunnisa ‘Cissie’ Gool (1897 – 1963) is a renowned South African anti-apartheid political and civil rights leader. 

Cissie Gool grew up in District Six and was the first coloured woman to receive a master’s degree in psychology from the University of Cape Town. Gool launched her political career in 1931 when she argued against a bill to introduce the vote to white women only. She went on to represent District Six on the Cape Town City Council from 1938 until her death, and was elected chairperson to the council’s health committee in 1949. She was the first black woman to serve in local government in South Africa. Cissie Gool founded the National Liberation League and helped found the Non-European United Front (NEUFO). 

In 1954, Gool was imprisoned under the Suppression of Communism Act and then again in 1956. In 1962, she became the first coloured female law graduate in South Africa and the first to be called to the Cape Bar. She died of a stroke on 1 July 1963. 

Cissie Gool will always be remembered at the ‘Jewel of District Six’. 

Sacks’s memorial to Gool comprises 17 bollards of different sizes that symbolise the laws that were passed as a result of Gool’s political actions. 

Today this series of concrete cylinders lines Longmarket Pedestrian Mall between Buitenkant Street and Plein Street. Each bollard was remade and installed by Stonecast.

We highly recommend this article about Cissie Gool from the Daily Maverick which helped inform this write up.