Catholics ‘to sell off’ cultural hub

Community challenges ‘short-sighted decision’

ATHLONE residents have launched a campaign against the imminent closure of the historic Catholic Welfare and Development (CWD) building in Lawrence Road.

The building has been used for community outreach programmes focusing on the arts, social outreach and the environment.

CWD has been operating in Cape Town since 1970 to deal with the poverty and injustices suffered by underprivileged people.

Save the Athlone Cultural Hub Campaign, consisting of residents, congregants of the local Catholic community and activists, has initiated an online petition to appeal for the building to remain open and for it to be declared a living heritage site.

Campaign spokesperson Shaheed Mahomed said that the building held great historic significance and its fate and that of the hub were intertwined.

“This building is where young activists during the dark days of apartheid held meetings and were given sanctuary while pursued by security police.

“This has become a hub of cultural and community upliftment.

“Its history is now in jeopardy because of short-sightedness.”

Mahomed said while steps were under way to apply for the building to be a living heritage site, the community would still seek mediation with the Catholic Archdiocese and appeal to them to reconsider.

According to the campaign, the site houses a garden that was used for a feeding scheme prior to the drought, in tribute to Struggle icons Coline Williams and Robert Waterwitch.

The ashes of Waterwich’s mother, Hettie Coetzee-Waterwich, were scattered in that garden.

Last year, the CWD, which is the welfare arm of the Catholic Diocese of Cape Town, issued all 49 members of its staff retrenchment letters, citing “the dire state of CWD finances and ever-increasing liabilities”.

Organisations which run programmes from the building include the Mountain Club of South Africa, Revolutionary Yoga and the Athlone Academy of Music, and it has a reading room with about 30 000 classic books and 10 000 educational films.

The CWD had reportedly racked up debts of almost R18 million due to mismanagement and there may have already been a decision to sell the property to make way for student accommodation.

Congregant and Waterwich’s uncle Basil Snayer wrote a letter to Archbishop Stephen Brislin, saying: “I am a proud Catholic, but I am not proud of the manner in which the Catholic hierarchy in this province is simply selling off prime and useful property to the highest bidder – with very little if any, consultation.

‘‘I appeal to those most influential in this case.

‘‘There can surely not be any merit or sense in selling off such a precious and useful commodity as this property.”

Snayer said that if mismanagement had occurred, those responsible ought to bear the brunt, not those who went out of their way to utilise it to its fullest potential.

Last week, the CWD applied for an interdict to prevent Athlone hub coordinator Andre Marais from accessing the premises, charging that Marais had orchestrated illegal occupation of the building.

CWD board member Graham Wilson did not respond to questions but forwarded a media statement as well as the order issued by the Western Cape High Courts.

The statement only said that the CWD sought and obtained the urgent protection from the High Court against a former employee, Marais.