In the article below, Graham Dominy highlights a number of heritage battles currently raging across Tshwane. The battles reveal many of the issues that continue to plague the heritage sector. Thank you to the editors of the Arcadian for giving us permission to republish.
The Old Pretoria central area of Tshwane is home to some of the most important architectural heritage in South Africa. The most visible of the buildings are the Union Buildings, set in Sir Herbert Baker’s beautifully terraced gardens. However, there are other important public buildings including the City Hall; there are churches (designed by both Baker and Gerard Moerdijk); schools, university buildings and ordinary homes. Sometimes it seems that they are all under attack, by developers, politicians, careless officials and planners who see the preservation of heritage as an obstacle to their grandiose visions. The developers mantra is that they are implementing the government’s densification policy which they like because it helps them turn a quick profit. Very little effort is made to relate this policy to the urban context in which it must be implemented unless there is public pressure.
The Old Pretoria East areas of Arcadia, Brooklyn, Clydesdale and Sunnyside East are under unremitting pressure from developers. The densification policy and the need for student accommodation at the University of Pretoria are used as excuses to destroy homes and dwellings with heritage value and to replace them with blocks and blocks of near-dormitory style dwellings for students. Even the university has woken up to the...
