On 15 September 2016, the South African Heritage Resources Agancy (SAHRA) hosted a colloquium on 'Heritage and Development'. Heritage expert Herbert Prins attended and presented a paper arguing that the heritage resources management system has failed to achieve its purpose and that until equlibrium is restored there is no chance of achieving a balance between heritage conservation and development. The full paper is published below.
After the 1994 democratic transition, the importance of heritage conservation was recognised and a new law was promulgated to ensure the management and conservation of heritage resources.
The National Monuments Act – the NMA - reflected on the less democratic nature of the political order that preceded 1994. It was intended to conserve monuments, often endowed with political symbolism. In the NMA “Monument” means “any property declared under this Act to be a national monument…” In other words a decision by the Council is all that was required.
This is replaced in Section 3 (1) of the National Heritage Resources Act - the NHRA - by a more egalitarian assessment of “cultural significance” as defined under the “national estate” as:
“… those heritage resources of South Africa which are of cultural significance or other special value for the present community and for future generations must be considered part of the national estate and fall within the sphere of operations of heritage resources authorities.”
This implies that cultural significance or other special value is derived by taking cognisance of what the community deems to be culturally significant.
Accordingly the National Heritage Resources Act –...
