The Muckleneuk Ridge Conference Centre, located within the University of South Africa (Unisa), offers several superb venues to suit a range of business and cultural events.
The impressive Unisa campus, situated on Pretoria’s Muckleneuk Ridge, is a major landmark of the city. Pretoria, South Africa’s administrative capital, is a vibrant cosmopolitan city, home to the Office of the State President and to some 180 embassies and diplomatic missions of foreign countries. Pretoria is also an educational centre of note, with two universities and two technikons.
Unisa is just minutes by car from central Pretoria, and close to the main routes into Pretoria from Johannesburg and the Johannesburg International Airport.
The Winnie Madikizela-Mandela Building, in which the venues are housed, offers a vista of the Pretoria city centre to the north, towards Meintjieskop and the stately Union Buildings, and views of tranquil, tree-studded rolling hills to the west and south.
Reservations and enquiries
University of South Africa, 1 Preller Street, Pretoria
Mr Chris Lekhuleni
Tel +27 12 444 8666
E-mail: [email protected]
Mr Corné Jacobs
Venue Manager
Tel: +27 12 429 3046
E-mail: [email protected]
Application forms
- External form (PDF)
- Internal form (DOC)
- Venue and Facility Booking Directive (PDF)
The Muckleneuk Ridge Conference Centre comprises of:
- ZK Matthews Great Hall
- Senate Hall
- Kopanong Chamber
- Film Auditorium
- Two exhibition halls
- Restaurants and catering facilities
ZK Matthews Great Hall
The ZK Matthews Great Hall is a concert hall of international standard, with seating for 1000 people. It is one of the few concert venues in Pretoria that can accommodate so large an audience. The acoustics, with a reverberation time of two seconds, are perfect for a concert hall in which a variety of music forms are performed.
The plush foyer, graced by the portraits of previous chancellors of the university, sets the atmosphere for your event, whether this is a musical concert or a large business convention.
The low stage (113 m2) is large enough to accommodate a symphony orchestra. The impressive Rieger organ is mounted behind the stage, with the console on its own small stage (22 m2). The venue also offers a Steinway concert grand piano on stage, and a Steinway backstage, as well as a harpsichord. The Great Hall is soundproof, providing ideal conditions for recording musical performances.
Every attention has been paid to making this a comfortable venue for the performers themselves, including well appointed backstage dressing rooms and restrooms.
Rieger organ
The organ in the ZK Matthews Great Hall was built by the firm Rieger in Austria and inaugurated in 1995, the 150th year in the history of Rieger-Orrelbau. The firm began in Austrian Silesia (now part of the Czech Republic) in 1845. The factory was expropriated in 1945, and the proprietor, Josef Glater-Götz (who had bought the firm from Otto Rieger) was expelled by the Czech government, together with all German-speaking workers. The Glatter-Götz father and son, as well as all the workers, settled near Lake Constance in Austria and continued the Rieger tradition.
Rieger organs do not attempt to copy any specific style, but to create a contemporary sound, making it possible to play a wide variety of organ literature in the language of our time.
Every Rieger organ is designed, built and voiced specifically for the room it occupies. The Glatter-Götz brothers, Cristoph and Raimund, visited Unisa for this purpose, as well as to advise on the organ’s positioning and aesthetic appearance. The organ incorporates 55 stops and some 3500 pipes, spread over the three manuals and pedal.
The organ uses sophisticated technology that allows the registrations for a whole concert to be pre-set and stored individually on a magnetic card for each organist. A small television screen installed above the organ console enables the organist to see the stage, as well as the conductor.
Pianos
The Steinway concert grand piano on stage in the ZK Matthews Great Hall was selected from the factory in Hamburg, Germany and is regularly serviced by Steinway piano technicians from Hamburg. There is a second Steinway piano backstage.
The Steinway tradition of excellence began in 1836 when Heinrich Steinweg started building pianos in Brunswick, Germany. In 1850, he immigrated to New York with his five sons and changed his name to Henry Steinway. The new piano-building firm that he established in 1853 achieved rapid success, opening branches in London (1875) and Hamburg (1880). Today, many top concert pianists regard the Steinway concert grand piano as the finest in the world.
Facilities
- Desk at entrance for ticket sales or registration
- Choir stands
- Chairs for use on the stage
- Music stands
- Lectern with microphone
- Lapel microphones
- Handheld microphones
- Stand-up microphones
- Video/data projector and screen
- Compact disk player
- Cassette player
- Recording facilities
ZK Matthews seating plan (PDF)
Senate hall
The Senate Hall seats 230 people and offers everything required for a successful conference. The wooden panelling and décor in warm golden shades make this an elegant venue. The hall is equipped with conference system microphones and translation booths.
Facilities
- Registration desk at entrance
- Conference system microphones
- Chairperson’s desk with 5 microphones and an override facility on conference microphones
- Podium with fitted microphone, lapel microphone and handheld microphone
- Video/data projector and 4×3 m screen with the following inputs
- Computer with sound
- Visual presenter
- Video machine (VHS)
- DVD playback
- BNC and XLR connectors for other audio-visual inputs
- Web connection facilities
- Video conference facilities
- Translation booths
- Facilities for recording conference proceedings on cassette
- Flipchart stand (with paper and pens)
Senate seating plan (PDF)
Kopanong Chamber
The Kopanong Chamber, which seats 30 people, is suitable for smaller meetings and indabas, and can be used as a break-away room from conferences held in the larger venues.
Facilities
- Overhead projector
- Screen
- Slide projector
- Video/data projector
- Flipchart stand (with paper and pens)
Dr Miriam Makeba Concert Hall
Consider the Dr Miriam Makeba Concert Hall for your next cultural film festival or video promotion.
The venue seats 270 people; the foyer is equipped with occasional seating for your guests during intervals, as well as a kitchenette for serving refreshments.
Click here to view the seating plan.
Exhibition Halls
The two adjoining exhibition halls offer spacious exhibition venues. Each of the exhibition halls is roughly square in shape
- Exhibition Hall 1 measures 327 m2 (18.4 m x 17.8 m)
- Exhibition Hall 2 measures 328 m2 (18.2 m x 18 m)
The ceiling height of both halls is 3.1 m
The exhibition halls are also used as examination halls by external examining bodies, with the necessary tables and chairs supplied by the Conference Centre. The Conference Centre provides all the tables, chairs, screens and partitioning required for an exhibition. The halls have a separate entrance for offloading exhibit material.
Facilities
- Overhead projectors
- Screens
- Slide projectors
- Public address systems
- Video/data projectors
- Flipchart stands (with paper and pens)
Restaurants and catering facilities
The Muckleneuk Ridge Conference Centre caters for all gastronomic tastes and needs, from light refreshments to formal dinners, business breakfasts or cocktails. The dedicated catering team will advise on all aspects of catering for your event, including assistance with menu planning and arrangement of floral decorations.
A variety of menus is available, and can also be compiled to your specifications. The team has years of experience in catering for the special requirements of embassies, and accommodates requests for halaal and vegetarian cuisine with ease.
Several restaurants and facilities are available to suit a host of different requirements:
The upstairs foyer of the Theo van Wijk Building, on the same floor as the ZK Matthews Great Hall and Senate Hall, is perfect for light refreshments, snacks or cocktails.
The Philadelphia Restaurant on the third floor of the Winnie Madikizela-Mandela building provides the ideal setting for a more intimate function, with the garden atrium lending a special ambience. Meals can also be served on the restaurant’s expansive outdoor terrace, with a panoramic view of the city.
The Mphebatho Restaurant, leading out to its own al fresco courtyard, caters for small, private functions.
The gracious Protea Restaurant (in the nearby OR Tambo Administration Building) leads out to a veranda with a scenic view over Fountain’s valley. The restaurant accommodates up to 300 people at formal sit-down meals or 450 standing.