Durban — The Warwick Avenue Museum Committee has been left frustrated for more than eight years while waiting to lease a derelict municipal-owned building to be used as a museum.
The museum’s focus would be on commemorating the multiracial community that once existed in the Warwick area. One of the few old houses that were not demolished was identified as the site for the proposed museum.
The committee began discussions in October 2015 with the eThekwini Municipality Real Estates and Local History Museums about a possible lease agreement. Since then the building has further deteriorated and crime has spiralled out of control in the area.
Committee member Rafs Mayet said they were informed in March 2024 that the process was now with the eThekwini legal department for its input.
The Group Areas Act, the expansion of the N3 freeway in Berea, and the building of the Natal Technikon led to the demolition of hundreds of homes in the Warwick Avenue area from the 1970s onwards.
The exhibitions and community stories of the Warwick Museum, if they become a reality, will be similar to the District Six Museum in Cape Town, the Sophiatown Cultural and Heritage Centre in Johannesburg and the South End Museum in Gqeberha formerly known as Port Elizabeth. Mayet said these museums have become tourist attractions.
Mayet said their dissatisfaction about having to wait was brought up at the eThekwini Municipality Town Talk sessions on eradicating problem buildings last month at the Durban City Hall. Mayet said the communication lines between various municipal departments was in a mess.
“For any person or organisation to have to wait eight years to develop something is an indication that the City is not taking issues like this seriously,” Mayet said.
Mayet also queried what the economic and tourism impact on the City in the eight years was; what were the probable bottlenecks holding up this proposal, and how many other projects could be pending. Based on the committee’s observation and interactions Mayet blamed the delay on incompetent workers. In January 2023, eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda in a recorded interview with a radio station, attributed the problems in the City to the laziness of staff, who he said were coming late and leaving work early and absconding from work.
eThekwini Municipality spokesperson Gugu Sisilana said the matter was taking a long time because of several factors, including the fact that the land on which the house is located is under a land claim, so steps had to be taken to clear the matter with the Department of Land Affairs and the Land Claims Court.
“This was done amicably and then other entities and departments such as Telkom, roads, traffic management authorities, water, electricity, architectural services, etc ought to be contacted for their consent. Over and above, some geological and geotechnical studies had to be conducted, and contacts with other people who might have vested interests in the land and building had to be duly and properly informed.
“As a result, the process took a long time. In addition, in terms of a lease process various other processes (such as valuation/ clearance process) needed to be undertaken before the report is submitted to the council,” she said.
Sisilana said the eight-year delay could not be avoided due to the due process that had to be followed both administratively and legally through the Land Claims Court.
Mayet dismissed Sisilana’s claims that the land claim was the issue.
“We have documented proof in the form of an email that the land claim issue was resolved on January 28, 2018. That was seven years ago. Most of the issues mentioned were resolved years ago,” Mayet said.
Sisilana said the building had also been identified as part of the Inner-City Regeneration Work Stream.
“To further inform the lease process a conditional assessment had to also be undertaken, further stretching the process,” she said.
Mayet said to his knowledge the stream was not aware of the building because they focused on the Durban CBD and Point area.
In December 2023, the Daily News reported on the Mazisi Kunene Museum in Glenwood after artefacts were moved to Msunduzi Library in Pietermaritzburg. Professor Mazisi Kunene was a freedom fighter, literary icon, and poet.
His wife and executive director of the foundation, Mathabo Kunene, told the Daily News that she decided to take her husband’s collection to Msunduzi municipality after realising that eThekwini municipality had failed to preserve Kunene’s legacy. Mathabo said she was disheartened by the way the eThekwini Municipality had handled the situation. Mathabo said since 2019, nothing came of the never-ending discussions she had with the City.
There are 86 problem buildings in the City. The municipality’s inner-city problem building ownership statistics revealed that 65 buildings were privately owned, with nine hijacked.
The municipality has 10 buildings, four of them hijacked, and the provincial government has five, two of them hijacked. The national government has six, with one hijacked. In total, there are 16 hijacked buildings in eThekwini.
Since 2019/20 to date the municipality has conducted 22 refurbishments through enforcement response and owner initiatives, demolished nine buildings, resolved five dangerous situations, and placed 13 hijacked buildings back in the owners’ control.
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