January 13, 2004
By Lucille Davie
THE Gauteng provincial government submitted a report on Monday on its proposal to demolish not five inner city buildings, as reported in the media last week, but 10 buildings.
The provincial government moved into the city in 1995 and has since been acquiring property. It has purchased 18 buildings at a cost of some R150-million, and plans to demolish 10 of them.
Five of the ten buildings are 60 years and older, therefore considered of historical value, and the other five buildings are 55 years and younger. Once demolished, two inner city blocks will have been flattened to create a square alongside the present Beyers Naude Square between Market and President streets.
The square would be bordered by Sauer Street in the west, Market Street in the north, Commissioner Street in the south, and Simmonds Street in the east.
The newer buildings are: Custom House (Fraser Street, 1967), Volkskas, now Absa (Market Street, 1948), Litorn House (Fraser Street, 1959), Absa (Market Street, 1952), and First National Bank (Market Street, 1960). The older buildings are: the New Library Hotel (1938), People's Bank (1939), the South African Reserve Bank House (date unknown), Clegg House (1935), all in Commissioner Street, and the Rand Water Board Building (1941) in Fraser Street.
Clegg House already has a demolishers board pegged onto its first floor balcony.
The report was submitted to the South African Heritage Resources Agency on Monday, for consideration at their next committee meeting on 23 January. Interested parties may in the meantime submit their recommendations or comments to SAHRA by 4 February. The draft report of 120 pages was compiled by Johann and Catharina Bruwer, who in 2002 compiled a Heritage Survey of Johannesburg's central city area, commissioned by the city council.
Flo Bird, chairman of the Parktown & Westcliff Heritage Trust and campaigner of the city's heritage for many years, was outraged at the proposal.
"Whose bright idea is this? I'm angry. What sort of CBD do we want? These are buildings that make the city. Once the buildings are gone, they're gone, it's like murder," she said.
Jennifer Kitto of SAHRA says that she has started receiving submissions from the public. She says the general sense from the submissions is that "people are not too happy about the city's heritage being destroyed, but no specific recommendations have been made".
The square is to be part of what is called the provincial government precinct. The province already owns the City Hall, and the precinct will centre around this historic building, consisting of 150 000 square metres of office space. According to Mbhazima Shilowa, Gauteng premier, the province is one of the city's biggest property owners.
The precinct will stretch from Fox Street in the south to Pritchard Street in the north, Sauer Street in the west, through to Rissik Street in the east. It is expected that the square will be created between Sauer and Simmonds streets, south of Commissioner Street.
Public comments or recommendations to the proposal may be submitted to SAHRA in writing by 4 February. The address is PO Box 87552, Houghton, 2041, or by fax on 011 482 8196, or by e-mail to Jennifer Kitto at jkitto@jhb.sahra.org.za.
The 10 buildings proposed for demolition:
- The New Library Hotel, 67 Commissioner and 1 Fraser streets
- The Second Rand Water Board Building, 3 Fraser Street
- People's Bank, 73-75 Commissioner and 33-35 Simmonds streets
- Custom House, 5 Fraser and 68-70 Market streets
- First National Bank, 78 Market and 37-39 Simmonds streets
- Volkskas, 74-76 Market Street
- Litorn House, 69-71 Commissioner and 2-4 Fraser streets
- Absa, 72 market and 6-8 Fraser streets
- Clegg House, 82 Commissioner and 31 Simmonds streets
- SARB House, 78-80 Commissioner Street
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