Three years after the Johannesburg City Library was closed to the public, writers, readers and academics have launched a campaign to have it reopened.
The biggest library in the city, situated in the CBD, was emptied of staff and locked up on May 10 2021. The 88-year-old building was said to have structural issues, but the city has not given any timeline for when it will be fixed or reopened.
The silence prompted a group of bibliophiles, authors and concerned residents to take action starting with a protest yesterday. The event was spearheaded by the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation (JHF) in collaboration with the Johannesburg Crisis Alliance (JCA) and supported by numerous authors.
More than 20 writers and academics, including Dr Max Price, Prof Njabulo Ndebele, Dr Nechama Brodie, Zakes Mda and Rehana Rossouw donated signed copies of their books with personal messages to the library in support of the action.
It seems incredible, but the city council doesn’t understand that there is a connection between libraries and literacy and our very high rates of illiteracy
— Flo Bird, president of the JHF
“We have taken these books into a trust and will hold onto them until the library is reopened, when we will then hand them over,” Yusuf Chamda of the JCA told the Sunday Times this week.
The JCA was formed by the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation in coalition with Defend our Democracy, Action for Accountability, the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) and the Johannesburg Inner City Partnership.
“We have taken a detailed look at what has been going on with the library closure and decided that this is another of the many crisis issues in the city that we need to support,” Chamda said.
“The council said the library wasn’t safe for human beings, but I see the librarians are back in there,” said Flo Bird, president of the JHF. “It needs to be opened for the local community.
“It seems incredible, but the city council doesn’t understand that there is a connection between libraries and literacy and our very high rates of illiteracy. The library is an essential service.”
The library has more than 1.5-million books in its collection and more than 250,000 members. It is also home to six specialist libraries and a newspaper reading room.
“We have tried to find out what’s going on and where all the money has been going. We know that no books or artworks have been damaged by leaks, and the fire risks were minimal and easy fixes,” said Bird.
“Maybe we should have gone to the mayor — but the council staff moved out of the civic centre and are all over the city in different offices and nobody knows where anybody is any more.
“We did manage to speak to [Lubabalo Magwentshu] the MMC for community development who oversees arts and culture, but even he doesn’t know anything about what’s going on,” Bird said.
“It’s all so peculiar. The city library is not a luxury. The place is for the local community to access books. It’s not only for the elite or just researchers. It’s for the people, for children who need a safe place to study, to do their homework and access the internet.”
In February last year, the Johannesburg Development Agency said two contractors were appointed to work on fixing the library, with expenditure estimated at R904,626.
The JHF asked for details and was given a list of repairs: roof leaks solutions such as replacement of damaged roof tiles; waterproofing; the sealing of gutters and downpipes; replacement of damaged skylights; fire detection solutions and fire protection elements upgrades; a gas fire-suppression system commissioning and fire signage.
“But to this day, nobody can tell us why it has taken more than three years to do this. The gas fire-suppression system is already installed. It’s in the building. It just needs to be commissioned,” Bird said.
“We want to know how it is possible that the building is in such a dire state after it underwent extensive renovations amounting to R68m and a public reopening in 2012. We have asked for permission to do a site inspection but we are repeatedly ignored.”
Last November the city issued a statement in response to a letter-writing campaign to councillors. The statement referred to a budget of R25m quoted over the 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23 financial years for the library refurbishment, of which R18m had already been spent. It promised “a comprehensive, technical and factual response to all interested and affected stakeholders”, but this was not forthcoming.
In January this year the Sunday Times asked the city for an explanation and clarity on the various budget claims as well as an expected date for the reopening, but received no response.
This week the city issued a statement on the role of the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) “in the city’s R7.4bn capital expenditure budget for 2024/25”, in which it was stated: “The JDA has been undertaking renovations and refurbishments of the roof repairs and fire protection systems upgrades to the Joburg central library. A further R25m has been provided for the upgraded library which is a landmark in the city.”
The Sunday Times this week asked the city for clarity on how long the work would take and when the library would be reopened. At the time of going to press no response or acknowledgment of the request had been received.
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