Need forum to address closure
Red Location complex unused
I SHALL retire from Red Location Museum (DV) soon, but before I leave, I would like to share some insights from my humble perspective.
As a background, I believe that our whole South African government, based on the Freedom Charter, is supposed to benefit all.
The prestigious Red Location Cultural Precinct (museum, digital library and art gallery) has been closed since October 18 2013 by community members who are disgruntled about their decaying RDP houses/land (freely handed over in the mid 1990s) which the government has promised to rectify since 2000.
They want their houses to be restored according to the original RDP dimensions of 48m², instead of the lower 40m² metro houses (which the government was offering).
Some of these residents subsequently and forcefully have closed the precinct since 2013 to put leverage on the government to meet their demands.
This multi-million-rand international award-winning precinct (which used to be the tourism flagship of Nelson Mandela Bay) offered great economic transformation opportunities for especially the surrounding community as well as the metro at large.
At the start, the initiative was greatly sponsored by the Swedish government as an urban renewal and not-for-profit project during the Port Elizabeth Transitional Council-Gotebörg city twinning era.
The idea for this development stemmed from the community – and was channelled to the council – through its leadership structure (at branch/ward level).
It had been long realised that this area was of important historic and anti-apartheid significance.
For instance (apart from its old historic cottages and barracks), the first cell of Umkhonto weSizwe was established here by Nelson Mandela, the first anti-apartheid Defiance Campaign was led here by Raymond Mhlaba and the first Port Elizabeth victim of the 1976 youth uprisings, Nomvume Mnyase, came from the area.
Singaphi Street (the main street leading to the precinct) has been beautifully upgraded since 2014.
To surrounding residents (with an about 60% unemployment rate), this street had a unique opportunity to benefit them economically through the tourism influx potential.
It was developed in such a way that people could mingle and trade along the street.
The original proposal for the street upgrade stemmed from the Red Location Museum – that wanted residents to benefit in a broader/more direct manner – because of the high influx of tourists and powerful institutional visits which occurred during its vibrant operational years.
It is important to highlight that most people in our metro still own no houses and most people who work cannot afford housing either.
For instance, consider the derelict situation of the hostel dwellers in the same area (Ward 15). The majority of them are unemployed and the long-promised upgraded ownership of the Railway Flats is just idling and idling since the 1994 democratic dispensation.
The place was vandalised during the time of Chris Hani’s assassination in 1993 and never restored by Transnet.
In the meanwhile, the place looks more and more like a ghetto, and this place is situated in the front gateway to New Brighton.
It sadly creates a degrading impression of the community.
No positive change is in sight in the immediate future for these residents.
With the different situations highlighted above, is it really fair that the Red Location Cultural Precinct should remain closed, and not offer opportunities for growth and development to our people at large?
Should every South African whose needs are not met rise up and capture government developments?
And if so, how do such actions impose negatively on the rights of citizens at large?
Where is the voice of former Red Location Museum stakeholders?
What is the overall opinion of Ward 15, Govan Mbeki cluster and the metro at large?
How do we “uncapture” the Red Location Cultural Precinct?
I propose we set up a special forum to address this matter.
Contact me at tel 081-531-2892 if you might be interested in this suggestion.
Annette du Plessis, Port Elizabeth