The Apartheid museum, in Johannesburg, South Africa, has been taking its first tentative steps without direct funding from the company which made its unique birth possible.

Plans are already in place to build a large conference centre, allowing the museum to hold events recollecting one of the darkest periods in the history of the old continent.

Seven years ago, bidders for a casino scheme were told that the winner would have to include a social responsibility project in its development plans.

The winning consortium, Golden Reef Casino, duly announced it would build a museum on the site, five kilometres from the city centre.

The original investment of around 80m SA rand (£6.7m) was accompanied by a promise to fund the museum for the first two years.

Since its opening on 31 November 2001, the 6,000sq m Apartheid museum has become a visitor attraction to balance Golden Reef City’s other offerings – a family theme park and a casino with 1,600 slot machines and 60 gaming tables.

Wayde Davy, spokesperson for the museum, said: “The 22 exhibition rooms are filled with a chronological journey through the history of apartheid and we get around 300 visitors a day.

“We are always updating our items and are currently considering adding a 500-seater convention centre adjacent to the existing facilities,” she said.

The items on show include blown-up photographs, metal cages full of weapons used during the era and a number of monitors, replaying apartheid scenes.

In one room, 121 nooses dangle from the ceiling, recalling the number of political prisoners hanged during apartheid.

The exhibition was arranged by a group of curators, filmmakers, historians and designers, which includes a casspir, a police armoured vehicle in which visitors can sit and view footage taken from inside the vehicle driving through the townships.

Entrance to the museum offers guests a vivid reminder of the way things in the country were just a decade ago.

“As visitors enter, they are randomly given a plastic card with either ‘non-white’ or ‘white’ written on it,” said Davy. “They then have to go through the appropriate turnstile before being able to re-join their friends on the inside.” Details: www.apartheidmuseum.org