Durban - Work on the highly anticipated Umkhumbane Freedom Park in Cato Manor has finally started, three years after the project was first announced.
In 2011, during the reburial of King Goodwill Zwelithini’s mother, Queen Thomozile, the eThekwini Municipality stated it would build a R300 million centre to commemorate Zulu heritage.
The queen died in 1959, when he was 11, and was buried in Mayville. Her remains were exhumed and reburied in Cato Manor in 2011.
A statement released by the municipality’s communications department said the museum and heritage centre would “revive” the Cato Manor area, preserve heritage and boost tourism.
The municipality’s website describes the complex, designed by Choromanski Architects, as being 35m high and “expressive of the spirit of Umkhumbane”.
It said the complex was “driven by the natural environment” and was “a meandering route” connecting the natural park to an arrangement of enclosed exhibition spaces.
While the forced removals museum would memorialise past struggles, the heritage centre would celebrate future endeavours of the area and its people.
The head of the municipality’s parks, recreation and culture unit, Thembinkosi Ngcobo, said R80m had been provided for the first phase, which was expected to be completed by December 2015.
This included the burial site of the late queen, the parking lot and the fencing of the precinct.
Ngcobo said the project would cost R280m and would be completed in 2018.
He said the centre and the museum would highlight the “rise and fall, and rise again, of the Zulu kingdom”.
“It’ll talk about forced removals and now people triumphing again - life in general of people living in townships.
“It will also include the Umkhumbane beer halls,” he said.
Restaurants, modelled along the lines of the beer halls, would be built.
There would also be accommodation for visiting lecturers. Accommodation facilities would be “open investment opportunities” for the private sector.
King Zwelithini would also have offices in the facility.
The Mercury