Museum could reopen
DAMAGED: CRIMINALS BLAMED FOR VANDALISM, ATTACKING GUARDS
Residents shut down community centre in protest over housing dispute.
The Red Location Museum in New Brighton, built to honour anti-apartheid heroes but closed by residents since 2013, may soon be reopened. But it has been badly damaged by vandals.
The museum, built at a cost of R22 million, has won several international architecture awards. Its structure is similar to the surrounding informal settlements and is made of 12 corrugated iron boxes. It was opened on November 10, 2006.
But residents closed down the museum in protest over a housing dispute. They wanted their defective 48m2 RDP houses, built in 1998, to be rebuilt but the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality and the provincial department of human settlements said the houses could only be rebuilt at 40m2.
Residents said this was too small and shut down the museum in protest.
As negotiations dragged on, the museum was vandalised and guards were attacked. One guard was killed in 2014.
Electric cables have been ripped out, expensive photographs of struggle heroes and the museum vehicle have been stolen, metal sheets and aluminium pipes have been taken and sewerage pipes have been removed, leaving leaks.
Thando Msikinya of the Red Location
Working Committee said: “We shut down the museum because we deserve better living conditions. But thugs are vandalising our museum.”
Masiza Mazizi, spokesperson for human settlements MEC Nonkqubela Pieters, said negotiations over the rebuilding of the houses were over and approvals had been signed.
Msikinya confirmed the committee had received a letter via the ward councillor that their housing demands had been approved and, as a result, the museum could be reopened.
Msikinya said guards alone could not deal with the vandalism. “Our guards are not safe here. We ask them to call us when they see anything suspicious. But it is not easy to go and patrol on that side because is too dark. These thugs are armed with knives, axes and pangas.”
Msikinya said New Brighton police had been failing in their duty. “We arrest the criminals and call them. But they release them the following day. We have several cases of vandalism that have been reported at the police station. But there is no progress with them,” Msikinya said.
New Brighton police spokesperson Captain Andre Beetge confirmed that many cases involving vandalism had been opened at New Brighton Police Station.
“Some of these cases are still in court and suspects were arrested. Some were withdrawn due to the lack of information.”
Nelson Mandela Bay mayoral spokesperson George Geleba said the budget to repair the museum had been approved and work would start soon.
– Republished from org.za
These thugs are armed with knives, axes and pangas
Groundup.