A grandiose multimillion-rand museum built to honour the contribution of women in the liberation struggle has been standing empty for almost a decade as it’s deemed to be a fire hazard.
The R280m Living Heritage Women’s Monument in the heart of Pretoria was declared a fire hazard by the City of Tshwane for failure to comply with safety standards more than five years ago.
Theo Nkonki, spokesperson for Gauteng infrastructure development MEC Jacob Mamabolo, said: “The operationalisation of the monument depends on the issuance of the Occupation Certificate, which is critical for fire safety.”
“We anticipate the finalisation of the Occupation Certificate before the end of this financial year [March 2026],” Nkonki said.
Asked who should be blamed for the delays, Nkonki said: “The department has held previous service providers to account and has since terminated their services. We now have a new team on site that we are confident will complete the project.”
However, every year the provincial government allocates money towards the museum including for “operationalising” purposes, with about R15m spent on it in the past three years.
“Incurred expenditures amounting to R14.5m were in relation to construction activities and the rectification of identified defects, as well as compliance obligations throughout Phase 3 [amounting to R7.5m] and Phase 4 [about R7m] of the project,” Nkonki said.
The heritage site, which was launched with much fanfare in 2016 by then-president Jacob Zuma to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the 1956 Women’s March to the Union Buildings, has stood empty for nine years now.
This week, the City of Tshwane, which was still declining to issue a certificate of occupancy, told the Sunday Times the structure was still a fire hazard.
Tshwane spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said though the defects identified by their inspectors were yet to be attended to, they were fixable.
Tshwane found that the building near the Sammy Marks Square and State Theatre lacked adequate fire-fighting systems.
“The reason why an occupation certificate cannot be issued is that the building does not comply with the National Building Regulation Standard Act, 103 of 1977. A list of outstanding documents was sent to the client to fix, and to date, they are yet to be fixed,” Mashigo said.
Tshwane also wanted engineering certificates for the structure’s foundation, slabs and roof.
Tshwane expected amended plans to be submitted for the deviations from those approved for the structure.
In 2018, a month before the Bank of Lisbon building in Johannesburg caught fire, eight government-owned buildings were found to be noncompliant in terms of the Occupational Health Safety regulations.
The Lisbon building fire destroyed several storeys of the 24-floor property and led to the death of three Johannesburg Emergency Services firefighters who were fighting the blaze. The building was later demolished,
Nkonki said they were working closely with the City of Tshwane to resolve all matters related to the fire-compliance certificate.
“The fire-compliance issues are also affected by the facility’s geographical positioning, which interfaces with adjacent infrastructure under different spheres of government, thereby engendering complex dependencies,” Nkonki said.
The museum was expected to have interactive audiovisual components as well as statues of leaders of the August 9 1956, women’s march to the Union Buildings, Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa and Sophia de Bruyn.
De Bruyn, the only surviving participant in the 1955 Women’s March against the apartheid government, told the Sunday Times: “If only it becomes a reality [opening in March next year] because so much time has been lost by its lack of serving and educating a generation of children.”
De Bruyn, who was honoured on Friday by the International Women’s Forum, said the monument was critical as “roles of women often get overlooked” despite their contribution having played a role in the nation’s history, struggle and development.
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