South Africa: R22 million Red Location Museum slowly being stripped

Years after the closure of the Red Location Museum in Port Elizabeth, the huge building has now been stripped of its electrical wiring, water pipes, power sockets, fencing and wooden fittings.

Children from the small shoddy homes in the area often play skipping and sports games on the paved areas, or hang out next to the graffiti-adorned wall of the gallery.

The museum was closed in 2013.

It was built to honour anti-apartheid heroes but angry residents complained that money had been spent on it while they lived in squalor.

The Museum, situated in New Brighton , housed hundreds of “memory boxes” containing the life stories of anti-apartheid activists, including Nelson Mandela.

The modern R22 million building, which has won several international architecture awards, contrasts with the plastic and corrugated iron shacks which serve as houses for the community.

Community leader Thando Msikinya said this issue had been raised from the beginning, in 2005 when construction started.

“We are living in shacks which get flooded each time it rains … and yet the municipality spends millions of rands building a museum.”

“For over 20 years we have been waiting for decent houses. In 2005 when the museum was being built, it was promised that houses would be built at the same time. But it was all a lie to get us to move,” said Msikinya.

Protests over housing in October 2013 closed the museum as well as the library and gallery next to it. Red Location leaders have kept the site closed ever since, demanding better housing and jobs at the museum for local residents.

The museum won the 2006 Lubetkin Prize awarded by the Royal Institute of British Architects as the best new building outside the European Union.

Community leaders say they have demanded houses for years but have only received empty promises from the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. Mayoral Committee for Human Settlements Nqaba Bhanga said residents of the area would be relocated as part of a solution to the deadlock.

Nelson Mandela Bay municipal spokesman Mthubanzi Mniki told GroundUp that a budget of R21 million had been approved to re-open the museum. The R21-million includes:

• R4-million for the Red Location Art Gallery for operating and maintaining the facility;
• R8-million for the digital library;
• R1-million for the re-curation of the museum; and
• R8-million for a Rivonia trial sculpture.

But the local residents are not so sure. “Until we have decent houses this museum will not open. We are sick of empty promises and we are willing to fight for our rights,” said a local resident who wanted to remain anonymous fearing victimisation.