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TUESDAY 29 September 2020 | Tel: 021 910 6500 | Email: post@peoplespost.co.za | Website: www.peoplespost.co.za
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People’s Post
WYNBERG EAST
‘Hands off our heritage’ NETTALIE VILJOEN NETTALIE.VILJOEN@MEDIA24.COM
W
ynberg East residents gathered at the old Palmerston School at 8:00 on Wednesday 23 September to picket a permit application to Western Cape Heritage (WCH) to demolish the existing buildings situated on the premises. Organised by Wynberg Concerned Citizens (WCC) in conjunction with Wynberg East Civic Association (WECA), the peaceful event saw the concerned group of residents walk from the school to Rosemead Avenue. Slogans written on the posters read “Hands off our heritage”, “No to densification” and “Save Wynberg East”. Baheya Aploon, an administrator for WCC (the local neighbourhood watch), says they want to make people aware of what is happening in Wynberg East. Last year saw quite a few single-unit homes being sold and demolished in the area (“Development concerns for residents”, People’s Post, 22 October 2019). It was claimed at the time that apartment blocks were set to rise in their place. Should WCH approve the application, residents fear the property at 18 Hayes Road will eventually suffer the same fate. “We don’t want these high-rise buildings. We want the school. It was intended for educational purposes and we already have such a shortage of schools,” says Aploon. In terms of HWC public consultation guidelines, the area’s registered conservation body (WECA) has a 30-day period on submission to provide feedback on the proposed application. Comments received are to be attached to the permit application to HWC. Yunus Karriem, a spokesperson for WECA, says a draft for comment on a heritage statement and demolition permit application for erf 90404 Wynberg was submitted to WECA on Tuesday 1 September via email. The draft was prepared by Pentz and Berman Architects on behalf of the owners of the property – the Moravian Church. WECA circulated a digital survey to households in the immediate surroundings as well as to the broader Wynberg community and any affected parties via a dedicated WhatsApp group and other social media platforms. Karriem says hard-copy surveys
Wynberg East residents at the old Palmerston School in 18 Hayes Road on Wednesday 23 September. were also made available. When People’s Post spoke to Karriem on Monday 21 September, he said, to date, WECA had received 130 digital responses. This number excludes the hard copies received. “The responses have been overwhelmingly opposed to the building being demolished – the reasons for this broadly fall into the categories of tangible and intangible heritage reasons,” Karriem says. The premises dates back to 1929 when the Moravian Church first built the school, naming it Palmerston School. It closed down in 1989. In 1992, the John Wycliffe School took over the premises up until 2009. Today it is being leased to a private school called Focus College. The private school, which has operated out of the premises since 2015, accommodates 485 learners and employs about 14 staff members. Karriem says the draft does not speak to the history of Reverend Dr Isaiah Palmerston Samuel, the founder of the school in 1929. “Dr Isaiah Palmerston Samuel, from Brit-
ish West Indian descent and classified as Coloured, was someone who defied the Group Areas Act. Learners from marginalised coloured communities came here to receive an education,” says Karriem. Neither, he says, does it refer to the building being used as a voting station. “Both our national and provincial governments use this building as a voting station since the very first democratic vote in 1994. Implicit in this is the national and provincial governments’ recognition of the importance of this building to the Coloured community of Wynberg.” According to the draft, the Moravian Church “intends to dispose of the site with the proceeds to be used to fund its charitable work elsewhere”. Shaun Hangone, an attorney at Senekal Simmonds Corporate Lawyers, which acts for the Moravian Church, says the church has not made any concrete decision to sell or retain the property. “There is no pending agreement for the sale of the property. The MCSA as the owner
PHOTO: NETTALIE VILJOEN
of erf 90404 is not entitled to redevelop this property without obtaining approval in the form of a permit from the Western Cape Heritage authority. This is the application under consideration.” Hangone says the outcome of the application will inform the church’s decision whether it can redevelop the property. This will also inform its decision on whether it will retain and or dispose of the property. According to Hangone, the church will only consider its next step with regards to the premises at an official meeting of the church’s synod scheduled for next year September. Cheslin Petersen and Soraya Samsodien, shareholders of Focus College, say the news of the application is causing anxiety among the leaners, parents and teachers. He says the building is registered with various governmental departments as “safe and compliant”. “We also have injected so much money into this building for its restoration to host all these kids and teachers,” Petersen says.
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