Citichat November 2011

Neil Fraser’s Easiread




November 2011



Well, we’re back, Citichat ‘n me!

After a long break and many requests, cajoling and threats, plus an arrangement with Urban Genesis, Citichat is back in circulation, starting on a basis of twice monthly.

Was in Joeys last week and happened to drive eastwards down Bree Street. The area where Bree passes from Troye to End Streets is like driving through the worst parts of Lagos! Hey, what’s going on? The area seems to be under the control of informal traders with no sign of any form of management! If you try to nip down the cross streets you are sandwiched cheek to jowl between great steel mesh walls made up of the backs of informal trading stands on pavements on either side of the roads. The result is that most pedestrians, of which there are many in that area, use the streets and driving is quite hazardous.

At the very first serious attempt to pinpoint the problems bedeviling the city way back in 1992, unmanaged informal trading was a priority on the list. THAT’S NEARLY TWENTY YEARS AGO AND WHAT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED??????? Well, we do have a “Municipal Owned Entity” the MTC, the Metropolitan Trading Company that we didn’t have before and which must be costing ratepayers a fortune to maintain! It is responsible for the management of informal trading plus another issue prioritised twenty years ago “taxis”. But what are the actual results on the ground? Nice cleanup of informal trading around Oppenheimer Square, which was motivated by the private sector, but I don’t see twenty years of steady progress in dealing with the issue. Which brings me to the Inner City Charter that set out specific informal trading requirements to be achieved by last July.

The Inner City Summit and Charter introduced by Amos Masondo, the previous Executive Mayor, was one of the most innovative and courageous steps any Council has ever taken in the Inner City. For that matter in any city in the country! For a local authority to expose itself to publicly listing nearly 200 issues requiring urgent attention, from major complex initiatives to smaller items, then providing target dates for their implementation, and signing these in a Charter as a commitment to achieve their completion by certain dates was an unusually brave step. In my opinion, the Charter formed the basis for one of the best urban renewal processes that we have been subject to.

That it didn’t totally achieve its objectives, in most part, was due to a system that appears to allow senior management of the city’s departments and MOEs to do their own thing. Some absolutely ignored the charter commitments, others treated it as an irritant. Informal trading wasn’t the only issue that wasn’t resolved, there were numerous others. The critical Better Buildings Programme made absolutely no progress at all other than being re-imagined as a complex BEE based programme that never got off the ground. I hear on my grapevine that the City is now surreptitiously selling off some of the buildings involved.

Whilst during the charter process, instituted in 2007, there were annual independent audits to determine what exactly had been achieved against programme, and what hadn’t, there wasn’t such an audit for the council year ending June 2010. Instead the independent consultants were told to develop a “new” list of “charter commitments”, including those items not completed in terms of the previous charter and also to re-examine the institutional arrangements that the Charter is both managed and assessed by. So we may never know the final score that was achieved which, sadly, merely stokes skepticism about such processes.

From what I now hear, you have to dredge through the voluminous newly issued “Growth and Development Strategy 2040” to find Inner City issues that still need attention. Does that mean that there will not be a new Inner City Charter for the new Executive Mayor’s term of office? I sincerely hope not especially as I hear that the very competent MMC Ros Greeff has been given the responsibility for the Inner City!

Had a meeting near the Market Theatre and saw that a number of the old buildings opposite the theatre are being demolished – I think I have been reporting on this development, known as “The Majestic” for probably five years! Good news is that the facades of the buildings are being retained for their heritage value. The very large (R1 billion plus) proposed retail and hotel development between Museum Africa and Carr Street seems to have stalled, I guess because of the economic situation. However the historic Potato Sheds directly behind Museum Africa are gone. The area looks quite sad, a large open space with a sign forlornly declaring “The railway sidings - visible directly behind Museum Africa – date back to 1911 and were constructed by the South African Railway Administration to provide access between the Newtown market and the railway yards to the north. Around the railway sidings, the Fresh Produce Market, the Market Hall and the Indian Fruit Market developed over time. Most produce was transported to the market by rail. Originally designed in 1910 as open sheds, the so-called potato sheds played an integral part in the activities of Newtown. The site incorporates various structures that were added over a 60-year period for keeping vegetables and fodder as well as for slaughtering poultry. Bustling activity, dirt and the smell of livestock characterised this area. By early 1960s some 2 000 tons of fresh produce was moving through the market every day.” So another little bit of Joeys’ history disappears BUT I believe that the demolished steel structure of the Potato Sheds will be reused in the new structure to be built in its place.

Another bit of old Jozi that has disappeared is 92 Market Street better known in the ‘70s and ‘80s as Solly Kramer’s. The first structure on this site was a low corrugated iron building with gable and verandah built in 1888. In 1895 a double storey brick building with dormer window and verandah with a chequered stained glass was designed by architect M.B. Houge. It was erected to house The West of England Clothing Establishment. In 1920 a new building, the Sauer building, provided retail facilities and Solly Kramer’s was built in 1976, a double storey building with an intriguing “wine cellar” and an open central courtyard. Over the years the building provided premises for clothing, a butcher shop, a fish shop, a confectionary store and a bottle store. The last structure was mostly timber. Earlier this year the building was sold and a new façade and interior alterations commenced. Robbers broke into the building a short while ago and lit a fire to see (as there was no electricity available) but the fire was allowed to get out of control and ultimately gutted the building leaving just the new façade. Heritage-wise it was no great loss to the city as it had been rebuilt and altered so many times that its heritage value was almost non-existent.

Another interesting episode I experienced when I was last in the city concerned Commander Frank Wild. Frank Wild was born in Yorkshire in 1873 – joined the Royal Navy in 1900 – volunteered to join Scott’s Antarctic expedition in 1901 aboard the vessel ‘Discovery’ when it sailed for McMurdo Sound. This was to be the start of his two decades of exploration. He was involved in a number of further Antarctica explorations including two led by Sir Ernest Shackleton on the second of which he acted as second-in-command to Shackleton.

After the First World War, he farmed cotton in British Nyasaland but answered the call of Shackleton again in 1921. Shackleton suffered a heart attack and died whilst the expedition was in South Georgia before they had reached Antarctica. Wild took over and completed the expedition. He then returned to South Africa and died in Klerksdorp in 1939 and was cremated in the Braamfontein Crematorium. Evidently it was Frank Wild’s last wish to be buried alongside his ‘boss’ and friend Sir Ernest Shackleton. Angie Butler, a South African author has recently published a book “The Quest for Frank Wild” (published by Jackleberry Press) which includes his original memoirs and details of her seven year search for his ashes. Following a phone call from Angie Butler, Alan Buff, the head of technical services at City Parks, discovered Frank Wild’s ashes in an urn in the Crematorium. Alan, who is clearly passionate about the huge history that the Braamfontein Cemetery holds, was the man who discovered Enoch Santonga’s grave in the cemetery. How I was involved was that the BBC have been working on a feature film on Frank, and I was asked to sit with the film narrator in Braamfontein cemetery and talk about what Joeys was probably like when Frank spent some years in the city in the 20s and 30s. I won’t add “oh yes, I remember it well!”.

Lots of news to catch up on but ciao ‘till next time, neil



Citichat is a Joint Venture between Urban Genesis Management and Neil Fraser. Urban Genesis Management works to strengthen local economies and business nodes, creating places that entice and captivate (www.urbangenesis.co.za). Neil Fraser, who writes Citichat, is a private consultant dedicated to the revitalization of urban centres. He can be contacted on (023) 614 3806 or neil@urbaninc.co.za. The views and opinions expressed in Citichat are those of Neil Fraser’s and not necessarily those of Urban Genesis.



Citichat is a free twice monthly publication concerning cities generally and Johannesburg specifically. Please forward Citichat to your colleagues who may wish to be placed on the subscription list. To subscribe please contact neil@urbaninc.co.za

Citichat can also be found as a blog on www.citichat.co.za









Urban Genesis Management (Pty) Ltd

T +27 11 447 8841 F +27 11 447 1375

C +27 82 254 1001

katie.engelbrecht@urbangenesis.co.za

www.urbangenesis.co.za