December 21, 2005
By Buhle Makabane
ROODEPOORT Museum might have had its day. Stakeholders are assessing its performance after visitor numbers dropped. However, its fate will only be known after the mayoral committee sits in January 2006.
With a drop in the number of visitors, the museum has fallen on hard times in recent years. It could close down next year, but history will continue to be told and its collections will be exhibited in other Johannesburg museums.
The museum focuses on the history of gold mining and the establishment of Roodepoort.
The possible closure follows a meeting between Joburg's department of arts, culture and heritage services and the City's budget office at the beginning of the year. At that meeting all the museums in Jozi were asked to submit reports and attendance figures.
The arts department was asked to investigate and to identify which facilities could be rationalised.
This was done to improve the service museums give to the public, and to look at how management, sustainability and services could be bettered, said arts department director Steven Sack.
Reasons given for the Roodepoort Museum's possible closure are that it is not generating enough funds and that it has low visitor numbers.
"The museum's mandate and its collection is surrounded by other museums that offer the same services. The facility is very small and it can get too congested," Sack said.
"We have had a report [that said] the museum had 3 000 visitors for the whole year."
If an agreement is reached to close, the museum's collections will be moved to Museum Africa in Newtown.
"If we strengthen Museum Africa we will get a stronger central museum and we can do outreach programmes to schools who want to know about the history of gold."
Museum Africa focuses on the history of the area stretching from the Zambezi River southwards to the Cape of Good Hope, starting from the Stone Age and moving through to today.
According to Sack, some staff members would help open the Kliptown Museum next year and others would be transferred to other museums. The museum building would be used as the Pro Musica Theatre rehearsal space.
The department is finalising its report, to be handed to the City council meeting next year.
It is believed that the report will recommend the closure of the museum based on its finances and visitor numbers. However, Sack concluded that at this stage no-one could tell what the final decision would be.
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