SOUTH AFRICA: NOTORIOUS DEATH ROW GALLOWS TO BE DISMANTLED

English/Nat South Africa is to dismantle its notorious gallows, four months after the death penalty was abolished. At the height of the political unrest between 1983 and 1987, more than 600 prisoners were hanged. Now, as the authorities prepare to take down the gallows, cameras have been allowed on Death Row for a first - and final - look. Inside Pretoria's Maximum Security Prison lies the machinery of a bygone era - seven nooses in a row above a trap door. In the dark days of apartheid, prisoners were sent to the gallows seven at a time. The death penalty was abolished in June by the country's new Constitutional Court, which found capital punishment a violation of human rights no longer in practice in most civilized countries. While the 353 former death row prisoners will no longer have to face the walk to the gallows, they still have an agonizing wait before they hear their fate. They'll have to appear before a court and be given appropriate prison sentences for their crimes. Today (Thursday) journalists retook the last footsteps of hundreds of prisoners. SOUNDBITE: "The executioner would close the flap and he placed the rope around the neck and he would then pull the mechanism that worked the gallows." SUPER CAPTION: Brigadier Chris Olkers, Department of Correctional Services The day before being hanged the prisoner would be measured: the thickness of the neck, height and weight -- all factors essential in calculating the drop of the rope for a clean kill. Prisoners were lined up at the gallows, their wrists tied behind their backs and a rope placed around each neck with the knot next to an ear. Hoods were drawn over their heads. Then the hangman pulled a lever, opening the trapdoor. Ten minutes later a doctor would check for a pulse. The bodies were the property of the state. The families were not allowed to see inside the coffins, nor were they permitted to be present when the coffins were lowered into the ground. SOUNDBITE: "I was actually touched when I walked those 52 steps to and from. And I thought of my comrades and my friends who went only once and never came back." SUPER CAPTION: Ting Ting Masango, former Death Row prisoner Political prisoners like Masango were freed in recent years in the run-up to historic all- race elections in 1994 that led to Nelson Mandela becoming South Africa's first black president, ending the brutal apartheid system of white minority rule. Lynne Remy's fiance Paul Van Vuren was on Death Row for killing a German tourist. He has been moved to another prison since the death penalty was abolished. SOUNDBITE: "On Death Row they didn't treat those guys like people. I never felt that they got any respect, not respect like just like talking to them, like actual human respect. To them they were just Death Row prisoners." SUPER CAPTION: Lynne Remy The noose was most used at the height of political unrest in South Africa in the 1980s. Between 1983 and 1987, 627 prisoners were hanged. In 1990 President F.W. de Klerk declared a moratorium on capital punishment to meet a condition demanded by President Nelson Mandela before Mandela would consent to being released from prison. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/e92092f6a3244dc23572012a0d1a5d52 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork