Rissik Street Post Office Citichat 19 July 2002

CITICHAT 28/2002 - 19 July 2002


Rissik Street Post Office

The Bad News is that the Bells aren’t ringing!

Have had a large number of people contacting me in recent months concerned about the fate of the Rissik Street Post Office, I have in fact written previously this year about the distressing state of this building. Two related issues have come across my desk during the past month and, hopefully the beginnings of a solution.

The first has led to even more uncertainty in my own mind in regard to responsibility for heritage management, certainly in the short term. Those of you involved in conservation of the built environment in South Africa will undoubtedly know all this but it may be worth setting it out as I understand it and then trying to apply it to buildings such as the Rissik Street Post Office.

In 1999 a national Act of Parliament was enacted called the National Heritage Resources Act, No. 25 of 1999. This Act aims to promote good management of the ‘national estate’ and to enable and encourage ‘communities to nurture and conserve their legacy so that it may be bequeathed to future generations.’ A major role player in the Act is the Local Authority which resonates clearly with the principle that our New Constitution espouses whereby local government is elevated to play a far more vital role in the country’s affairs than was the case in the previous dispensation!

The Act requires a system of grading to be established whereby all places or objects which form part of the national estate are listed into at least three categories:

Grade I: Heritage Resources with qualities so exceptional that they are of special national significance. These will be identified and managed by the SA Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA).

Grade II: Heritage Resources which have special qualities which makes them significant within the context of a province or a region. The resources within this grade and their identification and management are the responsibility of a provincial heritage resources authority.

Grade III refers to “other heritage resources worthy of conservation” and are the responsibility of the local authority.

So far so good but where does the Rissik Street Post Office fit into the above in terms of the Act, exceptional qualities; special qualities or other? It is owned by the Local Authority but, by definition, should not the responsibility for its upkeep and maintenance be that of SAHRA or the Provincial Government?

And now bureaucracy rears its ugly head, complicating the issue even further! The local authority is in fact not allowed to perform any function under the Act until its competence to do so has been established and it is the provincial heritage resources authority that is responsible for this assessment. But, two years – conservatively - down the track since the promulgation of the Act and we still don’t have a provincial heritage resources authority! It still has to be established and ITS competency assessed and approved BEFORE the local authority can in turn apply for its competency to be assessed only after which the various functions and powers can be devolved down to it! Oy vey,what a matzos pudding!

Again, where does the Rissik Street Post Office fit in? I don’t really know, but on the practical and positive side, the ‘good news’ is that the city’s property agency Propcom and the Johannesburg Heritage Trust have started discussing a joint venture to refurbish the building! So watch this space.

A reader with a passionate interest in the Rissik Street Post Office kindly sent me some fascinating information regarding the clock in the clock tower. It was built in London by Gillett & Johnston in Croydon and shipped to South Africa early last century. Its largest bell, named “Little Evelyn” weighing in at 1050 kg, was an exact replica of the smallest bell in London’s Big Ben of which the Rissik Street clock is an exact replica in miniature – absolutely unique! For nearly eighty years, three times a week two apprentices spent the better part of a morning winding the three weights of 225kg; 293kg and 360 kg for the clock movement; hour and quarter hour strike respectively. On two occasions in the past (1936 and 1952) a weight fell due to overwinding, crashing through two floors and landing in the main foyer. In 1980 the winding mechanism was automated, a concrete slab cast under the clock to avoid such accidents (a similar one in Big Ben is 5 metres thick!) and the four light bulbs illuminating the clock face replaced with 16 neon tubes.

Exciting stuff, but the bad news is that the clock has been stolen!

Regards, neil.