The recent devastating fire at Brazil's National Museum (which gutted 20 million items) and last week’s tragic fire at the Bank of Lisbon Building in Johannesburg yet again highlights how political and official neglect and maintenance cut backs are placing lives – and South Africa’s valuable heritage – at risk.
Bank of Lisbon Building (The Heritage Portal)
The Egoli Heritage Foundation has previously expressed concern about the state of the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) which is home to one of the continent’s most valuable collections.
“In 2017 we were informed that JAG does not meet fire safety requirements. In fact, neither structural engineers nor fire safety inspectors wanted to sign off on the building following the disastrous attempts by the Johannesburg Development Agency to “renovate” the building”, says Herbert Prins of the Egoli Heritage Foundation.
“City authorities are playing with fire and putting the lives of their employees and visitors at risk. If lives are lost the Mayor will have blood on his hands”, he says.
In fact, in October 2016, Mayor Herman Mashaba publicly committed to the restoration of JAG to the epicentre of Johannesburg culture. Two years later nothing has been done.
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This Heritage Month, the newly established Gauteng Heritage Action Group (GHAG) launched its 'Heritage Horror Stories' campaign. Sites that have been neglected for years have received 'black plaques' (the opposite of the prestigious blue plaque) with the aim of shaming owners into taking action. Many of these owners have made big promises over the years but have failed to deliver.
A prestigious blue plaque (The Heritage Portal)
The black plaques have been installed on the properties for passers-by to see. Owners may remove these physical markers but they won't be able to remove the property from the official black plaque list until the site is brought back to life (click here to view the growing list).
Below are the inscriptions for the properties that have been added this Heritage Month. Click on the heading for background and updates. The sites are all based in Johannesburg with the GHAG planning to expand the campaign to other towns and cities across Gauteng in the weeks and months ahead.
"Bought by Urban Ocean in 2005 who promised to restore it and its neighbours. This significant Art Deco heritage building was left without security leaving it to be vandalised. All steel windows and any other metal was removed.
DEMOLITION BY DECAY is an utterly unacceptable practice, completely anti-social yet the authorities do nothing...
