Where’s our statue and the money?
Seven years later and still nothing to show Safety at mall worries shoppers
ANOTHER anniversary of the 1860 arrival of Indian indentured labourers is set to pass and still there is no indication of when the multimillion-rand monument, announced seven years ago, will be built.
Thursday will mark 157 years since the first labourers came to Durban, on the SS Truro, on November 16, 1860, to work on the sugarcane farms.
The idea of a legacy statue was first mooted during the 150th celebration of the arrival of the indentured labourers in 2010.
Funding of R10million was allocated, to come from the heritage directorate of the premier’s office.
Of this, R5.2m was used for plaques throughout Kwazulunatal.
The balance was transferred to the ethekwini Municipality to implement the project. Last November, a sodturning ceremony took place at the site proposed for the monument, near Addington Beach.
Seelan Achary of the 1860 Organising Committee said frustrations were mounting as the city dragged its feet with the process.
Achary said the committee rejected the designs presented for the monument, last November, as these were “too abstract”.
The committee then suggested the designs be put out for public participation, but this is yet to be done, a year later.
“The designs that were presented to us were too complex in that when you looked at them, you had no idea what the monument represented. The aim of the monument is to educate people, not confuse them,” said Achary.
He said the ethekwini Municipality agreed to the idea of public participation but showed no interest in implementing it.
Urgency
“It is unacceptable and the municipality must take the blame for its actions.
One hopes some urgency will be displayed in ensuring the erection of a monument that will not only be a remembrance but also a tourist attraction,” said SA Hindu Maha Sabha president Ashwin Trikamjee, who had chaired the KZN legacy foundation.
Krish Gokul of the
1860 Heritage Centre also expressed concern about how “loosely” the process for the monument was being handled.
“There has been ongoing issues since the project was first announced. The entire process needs to be handled by a body that has the capacity to deal with it, as opposed to individuals. It is stalling because there is no leading group to take it forward,” said Gokul.
Minority Front leader Shameen Thakur Rajbansi said it was shameful that successive provincial leaderships had not intervened to take away the project.
She said it should go back to the province and should be taken over by heritage body, Amafa. ethekwini Municipality spokeswoman, Tozi Mthethwa, confirmed the delay was caused by disagreements over the initial designs presented.
“Some community members did not feel that they accurately captured the essence of the indenture. As a result of this, the project had to be handed back to the bid adjudication committee for authority to change course.
“We are awaiting the committee’s authority to advertise to the wider public. The construction of the monument will begin once all processes have been completed. In most cases a monument of this nature takes three to four months to complete,” said Mthethwa.
She confirmed some of the R4.8m had been used to pay those who submitted designs, but did not say how much. THE renovations at the Chatsworth Centre – “the heart of the community”
– will not be completed in time for next month’s festive shopping rush.
Sanlam Properties, which owns the mall which was built in 1989, said the renovations would be completed by March.
Their statement follows queries to centre manager, Keeran Govender, by the Sunday Tribune Herald regarding the refurbishment which began in August.
Mall workers, who did not want to be named in case they were blamed for speaking out of line, said the number of customers entering the mall each day had declined in the aftermath of the renovations because of safety concerns.
People have to walk under scaffolding towers at entrances and over uneven surfaces which are marked with “caution: wet floor” signs, while metal rods hang from ceilings.
A worker said a number of people had slipped on uneven surfaces and hurt themselves since the renovations began, including an elderly woman who was badly injured last month.
Patrons have expressed safety concerns on the Chatsworth Centre Facebook page.
However, consulting engineers from companies who have worked on the site gave the assurance that all parts of the renovations were safe.
“The mall has been checked and rechecked by independent parties during regular meetings,” said Ismail Arbee, a consulting engineer at Sutherland Engineering.
The refurbishments cost R140million, according to the statement issued by Govender.
“To keep disruption to a minimum, work can only be carried out at night which ultimately takes longer to complete,” the statement read.
In the statement, the Sanlam Properties group said they apologised for the inconvenience and responded, as far as possible, to all grievances.
“A health and safety inspector is conducting regular inspections to ensure overall safety of the centre and additional security has been stationed at the centre. Please contact the centre management team for further queries,” the statement read.