Several historical sites, museums and cultural land marks are taking a heavy strain from the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic which is threatening efforts to preserve and protect cultural heritage in SA.
The Apartheid Museum is the latest in the growing list of heritage attractions and art galleries forced to run with a begging bowl to donors and find alternative revenue streams due to the affect of the pandemic.
The museum which recorded up to 1,000 visitors a day before the pandemic closed its doors in March 2020 when Covid-19 forced the country into lockdown. Attempts to reopen early this year were shattered as no substantial tickets could be sold and visitors numbers were too low to cover operational costs.
The museum will not be taking any visitors for now until things improve or the restrictions of having 100 people inside are relaxed according to the Apartheid Museum Trust chair John Kani.
“Everything has come to a standstill due to Covid-19. This ruling that we can only have 100 people inside or 250 outside is not helping museums. It is not economically viable. I will never allow this place to be closed down. Apartheid Museum is a place of memory and place of history. It shows where we were as the country, lest we forget the history of where we come from,” Kani said.
The museum based in Ormonde, Johannesburg south, is not the only public arts and cultural venue facing a financial crisis as result of low visitor numbers after the outbreak of the coronavirus.
Robben Island Museum (RIM) senior marketing and tourism manager Siphuxolo Mazwi said the museum has had to restructure its operations to remain sustainable in the short-term.
“The prolonged economic onslaught of Covid-19 has pushed the organisation into crisis mode financially, and the RIM management is now considering various business rationalisation options, with effect from June this year until such time that there is a resumption of normal business at the museum. This includes cutting staff salaries by 50% with equally reduced working hours across the board and/or invoke section 189 of the labour relations act for operational reasons,” Mazwi said.
The Liliesleaf Farm in Sandton, which was a hideout for ANC activists including the late Nelson Mandela, is another institution that is facing an uncertain future. The property which was declared a heritage site in 2002 is said to be owing R7.5m to its creditors, R4m in overdraft with Absa, R1m to SA Revenue Service and over R1.5m to its 32-members staff who had to take salary cuts last year.
Another site linked to the Struggle against apartheid, the Mandela House Museum in Soweto, has been closed for business for months after reports that the museum is being liquidated to pay off debt incurred by the Soweto Heritage Trust.
The museum in Orlando west, which forms part of the former president's legacy, is an old Mandela family house which he had donated. Lack of interest and understanding of what role arts and heritage play by the current SA government has been cited as a reason behind the closure of many arts, theatre and heritage sites and venues in the country. More than that many heritage sites are under constant abuse by vandals with no clear plans to protect them for the enjoyment of the wider public.
In 2019, Sowetan reported that the Solomon Mahlangu Heritage Square in Mamelodi was vandalised again, mainly by nyaope addicts who have taken over the site. At the time the site had been renovated on a R49m budget after earlier damage.
This year Sowetan also reported on the crumbling of the Water Sisulu Square in Kliptown, Soweto, the site of the announcement of the Freedom Charter. The square has suffered from vandalism and lack of maintenance by the authorities.
The arts and heritage experts have warned that allowing heritage institutions to die is tantamount to killing South African story and history.
Tshidiso Makhetha, as seasoned art curator and artist said institution like Johannesburg Arts Gallery were neglected while storing rich history of artefacts.
“Who are we if we don’t know where we come from? These institutions need to be kept alive because they have been documenting important information whether through pictures, videos, articles or paintings. Taking care of these institutions is like taking care of our history and value system,” Makhetha said.
South African sculptor, poet, writer, and academic Professor Pitika Ntuli said it was important to keep heritage institutions alive because they were a historical record and a reminder of what has happened to the country. Ntuli further said South Africans cannot talk about nation building without talking about its heritage that is linked to the history.
“These institutions are a teaching and spiritual aid. What happened before should not happen again. We cannot separate any nation from its heritage. They are reminders of good, ugly and the bad that has happened,” he said.
“But I have realised that everything that has to do with culture and heritage is undermined by leaders because they do not understand the role played by heritage. Politicians don’t care about the institutions because they don’t want to be reminded of where they come from.
“Take institutions like Fuba Institution, which produced many of our leading artists, closed down years ago. It was never revived. The great works of a great artist Credo Mutwa that were damaged in Soweto were never fixed and restored. Now Funda Centre, the only art school in Soweto, is on its knees due to lack of financial support.”
The National Heritage Council of SA (NHC) appealed to the private sector to step in and save heritage institutions such as the Liliesleaf Farm and the Apartheid Museum.
Danny Goulkan, the council's spokesperson, said: “There are also other community based establishments that are facing the same challenges that also need to be assisted. While it is a sad reality that the scale of the affect was not foreseen a few years ago, it is also a reality that we have to grapple with as a country.
“SA cannot afford another catastrophic erosion of our heritage preservation that is still recovering from the suppression of the past pre-democratic policies.”
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