Empty R350m museum hosts a party and funeral
● eThekwini’s R350m award-winning museum, touted as a one-of-a-kind hub to document the sociopolitical history of Cato Manor, has become a costly white elephant, say ratepayers and stakeholders.
The uMkhumbane Cultural and Heritage Museum was the overall winner of the Africa Architecture Awards 2017 and sits alongside the crypt of Queen Thomozile Jezangani kaNdwandwe, the mother of the late King Goodwill Zwelithini.
The facility, which was built as a repository of cultural traditions and the history of the Zulu nation — with a cultural park and public square, galleries, installations and a theatre — has just one ground floor “exhibition” seven years later.
The dramatic five-storey red brick tower has hosted two events, the launch party and the funeral of architect Rod Choromanski in 2018. Only the ground floor is in use, and many of the windows are broken.
When a Sunday Times team visited, the receptionist and a few guards — the only people on site — said the museum was not open to the public and that an announcement would be made when it was “ready”. They said visitors “could read” the history on the ground floor.
The eThekwini municipality insists the museum is functional and open to the public.
Municipal spokesperson Gugu Sisilana sent the Sunday Times two videos — one of a wall showcasing pictures of Zulu kings and South African presidents and another of the crypt.
“The museum is currently preparing for exhibitions on the first and second floor. On the first floor the exhibition will showcase the history of uMkhumbane and will narrate the story of the Cato Manor Nine,” she said. These were nine people hanged in 1961 for killing apartheid police officers.
“On the second floor there will be an exhibition of the rise and fall of the Zulu kingdom starting from King Shaka kaSenzangakhona to the reigning King Misuzulu kaZwelithini,” Sisilana said.
“Exhibitions of this magnitude and historical significance take time to research as [they] require external approval, [from] the Zulu royal household. The research has been completed and submitted to the designers for both the first and second floor. The designs have been completed and approved for installation.
“I have seen the designs but they will only be revealed to the public when the exhibition starts some time next year,” Sisilana said.
However, guesthouse owner Janus Horn, chair of the Manor Gardens Ratepayers Association and a member of Durban West Tourism, says he is always turned away when he goes to the museum.
Horn questioned why the costly facility was being left to go to ruin.
“Every time I have been to the museum over the years I have been turned away at the gate and told it is not open. My most recent visit was three months ago. I am around the corner from this site so I know it is not a functional museum. The only people there are staff and maintenance teams from the municipality,” he said.
He had never seen a tour bus or tourists on site.
The only published photograph of tourists and a tour bus is a promotional image posted on social media by the municipality. There are no check-ins on social media or any photographs of members of the public at the museum.
Selvan Naidoo, director of the 1860 Heritage Centre, said the fact that the museum is exposed to the elements with large broken windows, and with the top floor having no window at all, suggests many floors of museum are not fully functional.
“The museum is clearly not fulfilling its full mandate in being a site of conscience for a democratic South Africa. At first glance, can this R350m museum be considered a tourist destination? It is an awardwinning architectural museum that has the potential to drive our tourism industry after the pandemic.
“The city must invest in first ensuring full functionality by employing a full complement of staff that are accountable to the strategic vision and mission of the museum and its promotion. The museum was built at huge expense to the taxpayers of the city and should never be underutilised or become a white elephant to tick off boxes of compliance for the municipality.”
Naidoo said the museum had great potential which could be realised if there were political will and accountability.
In 2019, the municipality said the museum could not open to the public because the contractor was liquidated a few months after it hosted the launch party in 2017. No formal announcement about opening has been made since then.
The head of the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s performing arts department, Prof Sihawukele Ngubane, said the museum was “state-of-the-art infrastructure”. He added: “We would like to see the project utilised for its purpose of showcasing the cultural heritage, history, and creation of economy for the local people by exhibiting crafts and programmes for the community at large.”