Calls mounting for JDA to reopen Johannesburg City Library

JOHANNESBURG - Calls are mounting for the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) to reopen the Johannesburg City Library. 
 
The historic building's doors have been locked since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.

The agency took the decision after structural issues were raised by a preliminary status report.

However, the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation said that independent engineering experts and architects had found nothing wrong with the library's structure.

JHF spokesperson, David Fleminger, explained that there were only minor changes that needed to be made while the library was operating.

"There is an incomplete fire suppression system which needs to be completed as a matter of urgency because all those papers, some of which are very rare, are a fire risk. But that should take no more than a couple of months, and thereafter the library can be opened. There are some other works that need to be done - there's a leaking roof that needs to be potentially redesigned and rebuilt, but that can be done while the library is opened."

Meanwhile, OUTA's Julius Kleinhans said it was important that the library was reopened urgently.
 
"I think people need to have access to information, whether it's for research, for getting up to speed with news and just for other literature and engagements. So it's a function that a municipality needs to provide and they need to do it properly."