February 17, 2005
By Lucille Davie
MILLIONS of people have crossed its wooden floors to buy stamps and post letters over the past 108 years. Now the Rissik Street Post Office has a new role: it is the setting for a 20-part TV drama called "Hard Copy".
The large side room of the post office, abutting the northern side on President Street, has been converted into a look-alike newsroom, complete with dusty piles of newspapers and untidy desks, for the filming, over the next 20 weeks, of the drama for SABC3.
"Filming is going well, although it's a little nerve wracking, now that it's out of my hands," said Anton Harber, co-creator of the drama and professor of journalism at Wits University. Together with Malcolm Purkey, the recently appointed creative director of the Market Theatre, he has been working on the script for the past seven years.
He said the crew spent some time making the room they're working in, described as "a terrible mess", capable of supplying electricity - now cables run over walls and into adjacent buildings. Several toilets had to be cleaned and restored to working order.
Most of the shooting will take place inside the building, with an occasional outside shot of its façade.
The film crew approached the City's property company, Johannesburg Property Company, asking for suggestions for a suitable building, said Harber. Propcom proposed the post office, and the crew immediately agreed on it as the best venue.
In 1978 the building - one of the oldest in the city - was proclaimed a national monument. It was built in 1897 and designed by President Paul Kruger's architect, Sytze Wierda, a Hollander, and was once the tallest building in town. It belongs to the City, which cancelled the post office's lease in 1996. It has been empty since then and its condition has rapidly deteriorated.
But even before the postal service vacated the building, maintenance had ground to a halt, and the decay has been exacerbated by vandalism and theft. Then, in late 2003, the structure received a facelift of a different kind - a protective, waterproof look in an effort to halt further deterioration.
The City called for tenders for the refurbishment and future use of the building in November 2004. A decision will be taken at the end of March and it is likely to be converted into a multi-use development.
"Hard Copy" starts broadcasting on Wednesday, 23 February, on SABC3 and each episode will be filmed the week before, in an effort to make the drama topical.
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