At least 20 libraries up in flames

THE burning of libraries along with other municipal buildings and clinics has become a routine feature of the growing wave of township protests.

Since 2009 at least 20 public libraries have been burnt to the ground, most of these as a result of service delivery protests. It costs between R1-million and R3-million to rebuild a library.

The president of the Library and Information Association of South Africa, Ujala Satgoor, said the association “deplores the wanton burning of libraries during protest action”.

“Libraries become symbols of local government’s inability to resolve local issues,” said Satgoor.

Former state librarian Peter Lor said this kind of destruction was a consequence of “deep frustration bordering on despair, a failure of grassroots democracy and the tendency of ordinary people still to associate municipal institutions with agencies of governmental control, as they were during apartheid”.

In February, two libraries were burnt to the ground in civil unrest in Bronkhorstspruit, Gauteng. One of these, the Zithobeni community library in Kungwini local municipality, was completely destroyed. A case of arson has been opened. Built in 1986, the library served a large community that included two high schools and three primary schools.

“Careful thought and consideration is given to the location, design and resources of a library,” said Satgoor. “The combined costs for buildings, books, audiovisual materials, furniture, recreational and educational toys and facilities may range from R1-million to R3-million.”

The destruction comes against a backdrop of insufficient funding for libraries. A sum of R2-billion has been set aside for libraries from the community library services grant, but, Satgoor argued, “there are huge discrepancies in the roll-out of these facilities among the nine provinces”.

The 2011 School Monitoring Survey, conducted by the Department of Basic Education, found there were 10 721 schools in South Africa without functional libraries.

In Limpopo, the worst hit by protests, about 68% of schools do not have a properly functioning library. In the Western Cape, which fared best, the figure is 11%.

“The Department of Basic Education has said that it needs R16.5billion to provide libraries to schools and aims to increase access to libraries over a 10-year period,” said the Democratic Alliance’s Annette Lovemore.