Heritage Issues

It has been brought to the attention of the Heritage Association of South Africa by Mr. Anthony Wiley that an old National Monuments Council bronze badge (often called a plaque) was being offered by a seller in Wellington on the well-known web sales platform BOB (the old Bid or Buy). The seller who trades under the name De Vreede appears to have a strong reputation as a 5 star graded trader with many satisfied customers. He is based in Wellington in the Cape. The price tag was R8000 – which probably would be the cost of making a bronze replica today.

These badges / plaques are valuable and becoming rarer as more are removed from old national monuments. It would seem that vandals or misguided individuals seem to think that because such an item is old or because the National Monuments Council no longer exists (disappeared in 2000) that removing such plaques to either recycle the metal or to claim as a cool souvenir is not really “theft”. I have news for all who are interested in heritage – the removal of these old badges / plaques is THEFT.

The stolen NMC badge on the Enoch Sontonga Memorial

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Huntington Hall, a mansion of profound historical significance in the village of Sabie, was tragically destroyed in a fire on the night of 28th August 2024.

The town of Sabie was started after H.T. Glynn and J.C. Ingle found gold there and formed the Glynns-Lydenburg Gold Mining Company. Huntington Hall, the manor house, used to belong to the owner of the old Glynn’s Lydenburg Gold Mine, H.T. Glynn. The town of Sabie was originally developed around this mine. The colonial structure was constructed in the late 1900s. The history of the house and its people were pivotal to the development of the region.

Huntington Hall before its falling into disrepair and being neglected by its local municipality and community

Below are some excerpts from the book: ‘Game and Gold - Memories of over 50 Years in the Lydenburg District, Transvaal’ by Henry T. Glynn

After the Anglo-Boer War, Lord Milner visited Pilgrims Rest and Sabie; he rode on horseback to Nelspruit from Pilgrims Rest and had relays. He called on us and had lunch at Huntington, with his escort of Colonels. While here my wife mentioned to him that it would be a great boon to the fields if a bridge could be thrown across the Crocodile River at Nelspruit, as the station...

September is Heritage Month but it is a downer when the news comes through that the museum and heritage site Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia has closed its doors permanently. The news of closure announced by the CEO and founder of the Liliesleaf Trust, Nic Wolpe, son of Harold Wolpe, comes as a surprise. It is inconceivable that this unusual centre and museum should disappear off the well-trodden tourist route of Johannesburg. Liliesleaf, like the Apartheid Museum (also now closed but on a temporary basis), is a must visit site of history if you want to understand South Africa’s history of the last century. Liliesleaf was once a farm and was the centre piece in Liberation History.

One can argue that Liliesleaf is simply a casualty of Covid. Museums suffer when no one goes out and foreign tourists stop coming to South Africa. All we could hope was that the wondrous treasures that so many galleries and museums hold are protected and cared for during this long inactivity. Museums and galleries only live when people visit and are curious about the knowledge therein. There are over forty Museums in Johannesburg and all have suffered during the past 18 months when doors closed temporarily as the country went into lockdown.

In May 2021 museum stakeholders gathered at Constitutional Hill to launch the Johannesburg Museum Manifesto highlighting the plight of all museums. The Manifesto, drawing attention to the crisis facing so many museums, was posted on The Heritage Portal (click here to view).

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Jeppestown, to the east of the Central Business District of the city, is one of Johannesburg’s oldest residential suburbs, proclaimed soon after gold was discovered in 1886. It was originally a neat little suburb for the middle classes of early Johannesburg. Most of the houses and small blocks of flats are now in desperate need of a coat of paint and repairs, but look like they were originally comfortable places in which to live, well-designed and part of a sustainable, liveable neighbourhood. Architecturally, Jeppestown is quaint and fascinating, with many different styles reflecting 125 years of Johannesburg’s urban development. The area is also not very uniform in the types of buildings and there are houses, blocks of flats, and also shops, schools, recreation centres, hotels, churches and a mosque, and even the fire station has a heritage story to it. There is also a railway station.

Jooste & Bryant Building (The Heritage Portal)

Many fine examples of  Jeppestown’s remaining Victorian architecture have been noted by the Johannesburg Heritage Register (Cosmopolitan Hotel, Grand Station Hotel (built in 1889), the Osborn Pharmacy, The Don),  but remain vulnerable. The historic Grand Station Hotel somehow managed to burn itself down in 2019. See Kathy Munro’s article, 2019 (click here to read).

 ...

There are many heritage objects housed in State aided or supported entities such as museums, governmental departments, and other state organisations. These institutions are responsible for safe-guarding and looking after the heritage objects in their custodianship on behalf of the public. Heritage objects portray material evidence of the people and their environment, as such, they should be cared for and conserved, due to their lasting value and provision of evidence of the origins of South African society. Heritage Objects are valuable, finite, non-renewable and irreplaceable, they must be carefully managed to ensure that they are accessible to future generations. However, applicable evidence in the management of heritage objects, especially housed in some State aided or supported bodies, present a worrying situation. This paper looks at some of the concerns regarding the management and conservation of heritage objects in the custody of State aided or supported bodies. It explores challenges and obligations within the applicable legislations facing State departments or aided entities, lessons learned from tertiary institutions, as well as possible partnerships to share knowledge in safeguarding heritage objects and collections.

Museum Africa has experienced several challenges over the years (The Heritage Portal)

1. Legal framework governing the management of heritage objects

It is intrinsic that museums are established to acquire and conserve heritage objects on behalf of the public. Public or State funded/supported museums draw their mandates...

In raising this issue I wish to point out that many attempts by both De Rust Heritage and the Joint Heritage Permit Committee in Oudtshoorn comprising Heritage Oudtshoorn Erfenis and the De Rust Heritage Conservation Association have largely proved unsuccessful in getting the Greater Oudtshoorn Municipality to prosecute guilty parties over a number of years.

There are many dedicated staff employed by the Oudtshoorn Municipality and since the DA came to into power following the ANC’s earlier spell in office which bankrupted the Municipality, many of these employees have come to the fore. However, in many cases where municipal by-laws have been fragrantly disregarded, senior municipal officials seem either unable or unwilling to use the available legal means to ensure compliance through the use of the courts. This particularly applies to the Department of Town Planning and Building Control.

In many cases this has resulted in an increasing level of infringements and a significant lessening of the authority of the municipality. It also results in the general devaluation of the properties in a particular area as well as lowering the rates base and consequently revenue for the municipal council. In addition, it is suggested that by applying the by-laws correctly that extra revenue would be generated towards the overall municipal budget to improve service delivery levels.

Some Quick & Easy Solutions

The required proposed course of action is not complex and relies solely on the strict application of the “rule of law” being applied in each of the following areas...

Currently registered heritage bodies which are organised, funded and run by dedicated volunteers are battling against the lack of practical enforcement efforts by both Provincial Heritage bodies such as Heritage Western Cape as well as at Local Government Level in municipalities. 

In using the Western Cape as the example, which is supposedly the best run heritage body in the country, the picture reflects badly on all of the Western Cape Provincial Government, Heritage Western Cape and local municipalities such as Greater Oudtshoorn. 

The issue is one of a serious systemic failure at all levels of provincial and local government including outdated top down organisational structures with many political players still not appreciating the need for decentralisation and integrated multi-disciplinary management teams at all levels. 

Some Proposed Solutions

In considering practical solutions to the problems described above it is worth pointing out that in many cases effective enforcement of existing legislation and municipal by-laws, should and could be the first step in resolving many of the current outstanding issues.  

Currently Heritage Western Cape operates a centralised, top down outdated 20th Century structure which is highly bureaucratic. In addition, its major focus is on the Cape Town Metro and Winelands with little or no regard for the outlying regions such as the Southern Cape and Klein Karoo.

The above has been raised with Heritage Western Cape numerous times, including the submission of proposals in 2018 on a decentralised regional based structure with the provincial body being responsible for empowering the regions...

In October 2017 it was brought to SAHRA’s attention that a letter written by Steve Biko was going to be auctioned online in Britain. The letter was addressed to the Magistrate in East London, South Africa, and details a request to leave the magisterial district under which Biko was restricted in order to visit his wife. Steve Biko, the leader of the South African Student Organisation (SASO); and intellectual inspiration behind the Black Consciousness Movement, was known for being a prolific writer of letters. The South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA), mandated to identify and conserve South African heritage Resources, approached the auction house concerned to enquire how the letter left South Africa and to inform them that in terms of the National Heritage Resources Act, No. 25 of 1999 (NHRA) and described in the List of Types of Objects, Gazetted in December 2002 (currently under review), objects associated with leaders and events in South Africa are protected and may not be exported without a permit from SAHRA. The auction house was not co-operative, and because their advert did not include the name of the “owner” of the letter, it was impossible for SAHRA to adequately deal with the matter. It is also likely, that the letter had been illegally exported. However, the key question is, how a letter addressed to the Magistrate that ultimately belongs to the State, ended up in private ownership?

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The local controversy over the development of the public space at Maiden's Cove on the Atlantic Seaboard of Cape Town has been brought to national attention in an article by the distinguished retired Constitutional Court Judge, Albie Sachs. “The Secret Weapon of Maiden's Cove for All” (Daily Maverick, 4 September 2018), hones in on some of the most complex and persistent challenges in the heritage sector: How to define heritage? Whose heritage is it? How should public participation be conducted? What are the responsibilities of the various spheres of government? And how does the bureaucracy carry out its responsibilities, if at all?

Screenshot from Albie Sachs' Daily Maverick article

Heritage practitioners and activists often crash their heads into a stone wall of developer and planner-generated rhetoric; especially claims that mega-plans conform to government policy and legislation. Often, the key point in the narrative is the national policy of “Densification” that purports to allow the construction of mega-buildings regardless of their immediate surroundings, whether that includes historic buildings, or a pristine environment, or not. The Maiden's Cove controversy illustrates the issues. Albie Sachs puts the challenge very eloquently, describing Maiden’s Cove as:

    “...a precious heritage site now threatened with crass money-making development by the very body that should be its protector, the Cape Town...

In 2001, the Journal of Heritage Studies published a fascinating article by Joan Henderson titled Conserving Colonial Heritage: Raffles Hotel in Singapore. In a section of the article that looks at the history of heritage conservation in Singapore, Henderson highlights four strategies that post-colonial societies can adopt when dealing with buildings inherited from the colonial era: renaming, neglecting, removing and using. She acknowledges that there have been cases of neglect, removal and renaming in Singapore but shows that the overwhelming trend over the last few decades has been using.

The article points out a few reasons why this has been the case. Firstly, the progress made by Singapore since independence has created a self-confident nation that doesn't see colonial buildings as a threat or embarrassment (which could lead to neglect and removal) but rather as a benchmark to show off its subsequent achievements. Secondly, the economic success that Singapore has enjoyed has created an environment where the preservation of built evironment heritage has become a priority. Lastly, and linked to the second reason, the authorities have taken a pragmatic approach towards colonial era buildings, recognising their potential to attract thousands of tourists and contribute to the economy.
 

Entrance to Raffles Hotel Singapore (The Heritage Portal)

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