Central library shutdown – Joburg blows R25m on roof repairs, gutters and pipes

Water stains in the basement of the Johannesburg City Library. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

By Ferial Haffajee

27 Aug 2024

The City will spend R60-million more, but still can’t say when the library will fully reopen.

Johannesburg Metro will end up spending R85-million on repairs to the central library, which has been shut for over three years. There is no clear date for it to re-open. The closure has removed a vital facility for inner-city students and children who rely on it.

The City still can’t say when the library will fully reopen but has revealed for the first time that it has spent R25-million on stop-start repairs to the roof, gutters, and downpipes.

Engineers say the additional R6-million project management fee, which will grow substantially, exceeds average costs by multiples. Civil society leaders have repeatedly protested the closure.

flo bird wynand Dreyer Flo Bird and Wynand Dreyer tour the Johannesburg Library. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

“There is blatant neglect of the people who live here. Somebody must be concerned about the humans here,” said Flo Bird of the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation. Campaigning for the library’s reopening, she said the facility provided vital WiFi for students and a space for children.

“The children’s librarian was nearly in tears when management told them the library would close.”

On a site visit to the shuttered library, the children’s books and activities lie unread and dormant. The heritage library on Beyers Naudé Square is silent and half-lit. Tens of thousands of books line the shelves, full of knowledge but empty of readers. City officials told students and children they could go to Hillbrow or Yeoville libraries, but the taxi fares to get across town are often unaffordable.

joburg library Plastic sheets cover bookshelves at the Johannesburg Library. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

In 2012, then-mayor Parks Tau reopened the library after a major refurbishment when the metro, with the help of funders, installed escalators and the number of student desks increased substantially.

The place is an essential study and education zone for students and children both from the city and out of town, with its impressive facilities and knowledgeable librarians. However, the City’s coalition council, which had six mayors in three years, was inexplicably closed until Bird’s campaign was joined by the civil society movement Defend Our Democracy.

Now, under sustained activism, the Johannesburg Development Agency has revealed the costs for the first time. At a meeting on 27 August, senior development manager Amogelang Kgoathe said the first phase of work had cost R19.2-million, with an additional R6-million project fee. This was for roof repairs, gutters, downpipes, minor fire services and some lighting.

The library is not in significant disrepair (as photographs show), so the rationale for the cost is difficult to see. Engineer Wynand Dreyer, who works with the Heritage Foundation, said the fee was excessive (it’s usually between six to eight percent). He said contract management and maintenance processes were defective.

joburg library Empty buckets collect water leaking from the roof at the Johannesburg Library on 22 August 2024. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

joburg library Engineer Wynand Dreyer walks through the Johannesburg Library. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

Archived newspapers in the basement of the Johannesburg Library. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

joburg library Water stains in the basement of the Johannesburg Library. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

Even after the three-year shutdown, the bulk of the work still needs to be done. Kgoathe said a second phase would cost R54-million, with a smaller management fee. The building required further alteration and waterproofing, specific mechanical installations, better fire protection (for people, books and archives), smoke detectors and toilet ventilation.

The City’s emergency management services issued a non-compliance report to the library in 2022 and another one in 2024 – a result of poor management and maintenance of fire and other systems by the City’s community development department.

After sustained civil society pressure, the City agreed to partially reopen the library in six months while the second phase was being completed.

“There is no final solution. I do not want to commit to a date,” said a Johannesburg Development Agency official at the meeting.

Between April 2023 and March 2024, all work at the library ground to a halt. This was because the agency increased the scope of work and needed to satisfy the Municipal Finance Management Act requirements, said Kgoathe.

The City only explained this to residents and users once civil society started protesting the long delays. The second phase of the repairs is expected to begin in a fortnight after the new contract again “hit a slight snag”, said Kgoathe.

Bird said she is pleased with the City’s new attitude and approach, but “we are still questioning the R26-million spent on consultants”.

She also says the scaffolding surrounding the library for years needed to be investigated as the City had inexplicably hired it. There were no external repairs that required so much scaffolding.

“It was there for a long time,” she said.

The Heritage Foundation commissioned an independent civil engineering report which found that the building was structurally safe and could be opened.

“All the actions taken were necessary. If we appear to be wasting money, it is important to clarify that it is not so,” said the city’s Mosala Legabe.

“There is no democracy without books. Libraries should never be closed. The Johannesburg Library must be opened. Books and libraries are the dignity promised in the Freedom Charter,” said historian and Nobel laureate Achille Mbembe at a protest in May to reopen the library. DM

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