POLITICALLY AWEH: SA’s libraries under threat as cities look to unlock land value

With Cape Town looking to sell off the land under Camps Bay Library, and libraries shutting or standing half-demolished from Durban to Joburg, the fight for South Africa’s free spaces just got more urgent.

The City has proposed selling the land under Camps Bay Library, valued at R63.45-million, to “unlock private sector development”.

Politically Aweh calls it what it is: the sale of yet another public space.

Durban has permanently shut its Musgrave Library, even as the City found R22-million for statues elsewhere, and seven of Johannesburg’s libraries stand closed and half demolished.

This is a concerning pattern for a country in which 43% of households have no books at home and most children still can’t read for meaning.

Libraries are among the few public institutions actively working against that reading crisis.

“It’s a story about public assets and public decisions,” points out host Zoë Human.

“The City owns land. The City decides what to do with that land, subject to the relevant legal and public participation processes. And residents have a role in those processes.”

We decided to pull a conversation we had with Mbali Ntuli of Ground Work Collective out of the archives. Ground Work Collective works to support civic engagement and encourage more active involvement in democracy.

In this conversation, we discuss three concrete steps: find out who your ward councillor is (by law, they must be reachable), show up to council meetings, and get a library card.

Libraries are resourced by usage, Ntuli explains, so a busy library is harder to sell.

“A strong democracy is strong because citizens know how to keep their politicians accountable,” Ntuli says. Getting a library card is just one way to do that. DM

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