The Liliesleaf Farm in Johannesburg, which was a hideout for freedom fighters, is facing an uncertain future and possible closure due to a financial crisis.
The heritage facility owes R7.5m to its creditors, R4m in overdraft with Absa, R1m to SA Revenue Services and over R1.5m to its 32-members staff who had to take salary cuts last year and have not received their salaries since January. The institution is now scrambling to raise funds to pay May salaries and to keep the site above water until it reopens its doors for business next year.
They have also started crowdfunding.
The 18,000m² site in Sandton is regarded as one of the foremost national heritage institutions in the country between 1961 and 1963 it served as the secret hideout and headquarters of the ANC, SACP and Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK).
In 2002, the farm was declared a heritage site and established as a tourist attraction, receiving about 600 tourists monthly. It closed in March last year and was supposed to have reopened in October, but that did not happen due to a lack of finances.
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Liliesleaf Trust founder and chief executive Nicholas Wolpe told Sowetan yesterday that their problems started way before Covid-19 pandemic forced the country to go into lockdown in March last year.
“This is not the direct results of Covid, Covid just exacerbated the situation that was already dire. Covid-19 also helped to cast the spotlight on the arts, culture and heritage sector and Liliesleaf Farm is symptomatic of the problems faced by our sector. We have been struggling over the years and now it has become even harder,” said Wolpe.
Although he admitted getting R8.1m in funding from the department of sports, arts and culture in 2015 and R6.9m from the Gauteng government in 2017, Wolpe said the government has been hesitant to fund non-state-owned entities despite the work they do.
Since its inception, the farm has raised R190m of which R61m came from government.
“The government then started telling us that we don’t qualify for funding because we are not state-owned,” said Wolpe.
The department's spokesperson Masechaba Khumalo told Sowetan yesterday that they needed more time to comment on Wolpe’s allegations.
Ordinarily, the farm runs on a R1m monthly budget of which 55% goes to salaries, R25,000 is spent on utilities, R12,000 on water, R25,000 on information technology, R25,000 general maintenance, R25,000 on security and R45,000 on repairing exhibitions. To counter their expenses, contributions to workers’ medical aids had been suspended since January last year.
“In order for us to pay the salaries the workers have to accept salary cuts. I’m owed R650,000 and I only received a R20,000 salary to cover March and April. We don’t know what we are going to do next month,” said Wolpe.
The farm is not the only heritage entity hit by funding challenges. Last year, the Mandela’s House Museum in Vilakazi Street, Soweto, was to be liquidated to pay off debt owed by the Soweto Heritage Trust of which Mandela was a founder. The liquidation, which would have resulted in job losses, is currently on hold.
Another Mandela home in Alexandra, northern Johannesburg, still remains an eye-sore despite the government’s promise to turn it into a museum. He had lived in it after leaving the Eastern Cape for Johannesburg in the 1940s.
Linda Twala, one of Alexandra’s oldest residents who has been lobbying the government to renovate the house, said the delays were caused by fellow comrades.
“The comrades stabbed me behind the back and told the current occupier not to leave that house as she stood to get millions from it. I’m still in the process of looking for a house for her,” said Twala.
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