Well, that was the worst possible advertisement for “open government”. On Monday, Joburg Art Gallery (JAG) staff, employed by the city, barred an oversight team consisting of DA councillors and journalists from entering the gallery to see whether any progress had been made in rescuing the crumbling building.
Such was the JAG’s single-minded determination to prevent access to the small gathering that, in its haste to bar the media, its security personnel ended up inadvertently locking a journalist from Kaya FM, who had arrived early, inside the gallery.
It wasn’t the publicity the city needed, after embarrassing details of the gallery’s decay had been widely reported by Currency, News24 and Daily Maverick in recent months. What should be the crowning glory of the city’s cultural heritage is falling to ruin as artworks are damaged, exhibition halls stand empty and just 1% of the 9,000 paintings and artefacts in its collection are on display.
Lyrics Mazibuko, the DA shadow MMC for community development, told the gathering that he had called the oversight visit to determine what exactly is happening inside the building, as is their prerogative under the city’s section 79 rules, which allow for councillors to make snap inspections of public assets.
“We thought as an oversight body we need to come here to see for ourselves,” said Mazibuko. “Our view is that there’s something they are hiding and someone must account.”
Had the city wanted to dispel that notion, it couldn’t have done worse.

Soon after, the MMC for community development, Tebogo Nkonkou and his delegation arrived at the gallery, which led to something of a performative stand-off between the two opposition city camps.
Apa Pooe, a director in Nkonkou’s department, told the media and DA contingent that that there had been “no formal communication of an oversight visit” so the staff were “caught by surprise”. In any event, Pooe said, the gallery is under construction, and it is usually closed on Mondays.
Farcically, addressing the group in front of the locked gates, Pooe said Nkonkou had “adopted an open-door policy”. But he spoke of the possibility of a combined site visit later this week.
Risk of further damage
While renovations are apparently under way at the JAG, ahead of a visit by mayor Dada Morero in two weeks, it is unclear if the city has again cut corners, as the Heritage Act mandates public participation prior to any work being conducted on state-owned heritage buildings.
“We are not aware of any public participation process, thus the work currently under way is likely being done without the necessary permits, making it illegal,” says civil society group the Heritage Foundation.
“The city has attempted piecemeal repairs in the past with poor results that have only made the situation worse. Undertaking any kind of construction or repair work in a building filled with art, most of which is improperly stored, runs the risk of further damaging a collection that is already at risk from water leaks, dust, debris [and] heat.”
When Pooe was asked why the Heritage Foundation and Friends of JAG hadn’t been party to the renovation, he said: “We beg for indulgence from the media – as I said, we are committed to gather all the necessary information. But our concern with the Friends of JAG is that they should also be friends of the city, and you can’t have your friends communicating with you through the media.”
Rather, he said, these civil society groups should “talk to us directly”.

Yet, in a moment that eloquently captured the double-speak and chaos within the official corridors, the City of Joburg then issued a press release denying the “false reports circulating about construction work allegedly commencing at the JAG without following proper processes – there is no truth to these claims”.
In that release, the city said the DA “does not have the authority to arrange or conduct an official oversight visit without notifying the member of the mayoral committee responsible for community development”. It said the DA hadn’t gone through the right channels.
This seemed to be an overly officious response to a request for a site visit to a gallery that has fallen to ruin under the stewardship of those officials tasked with overseeing an art collection which, at one point, was the most valuable in the southern hemisphere.
In August, law firm Webber Wentzel, acting for the Joburg Heritage Foundation and the Friends of JAG, served the mayor’s office with a letter of demand to move the at-risk collection. To date little progress has been made despite a series of meetings with city officials and Morero.
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