R100m women’s monument in Pretoria idle 8 years after launch

IT WAS a sunny day when, on Women’s Day of 2016 Lillian Ngoyi Square in the Pretoria CBD bustled with activity as then president Jacob Zuma and several government dignitaries joined hundreds of excited people to unveil the Women’s Living Monument.

From early that morning the mood was jovial as women, men and a scattering of young people, all dressed in bright colours, a lot of traditional wear, gathered at what was originally the site of a brutal massacre, to celebrate 60 years of the march on the Union Buildings.

The monument, which had been four years in the making and into which millions had already been poured, was to commemorate the brevity and recognise the events from the same place, of August 9, 1956, when 20 000 women from across all backgrounds, colour, race and creed and from across the country, marched to the Union Buildings to protest, among many apartheid era acts, the proposed amendments to the Urban Areas Act.

It not only was to be a monument in name, but within it were pictures, footage from the day 60 years before, audio and plenty of space to take a walk down memory lane and bring current populations up to speed with the courage that brought the women of the time together, to march to the highest office in the land, to have their say.

In the years of preparation and as the area was cordoned off, cleaned up, a majestic building constructed, and consultants brought in to compile visions of what had gone down when the women took their stand.

The amount estimated to have been spent was in the region of R80 million, but could have been more, some admitted, to get the heritage site up and alive, with the Gauteng government and City of Tshwane pitching in to ensure it was nothing short of magnificent.

And as the crowd comprising officials from the president and his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa, government ministers, local and national government officials, VIPs from all walks of life, and the many others, among them well known celebrities - some who had witnessed the actual events unfold, geared up to walk the same steps to the Union Buildings, the excitement was palpable and those who had made it happen, proud.

It was not only conceived as a tool to teach younger generations and allow visitors insight into the fight against oppression, but it was constructed to become the first site in South Africa dedicated purely to honouring women and their struggle for liberation.

Taking pride of place were four larger than life bronze statues - the work of art of Dali Tambo, son of struggle hero OR Tambo, depicting the leaders of the march. Lillian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa and Sophia de Bruyn had been perfectly immortalised, with sheaths of signed paper spilling from their hands.

Beaming with pride as she admired the work of her and the other women’s labour on the day was struggle stalwart de Bruyn, 82 that year, and her reflections were bitter sweet. She said much progress was made during the movement but, she added, women in the country continued to face too many challenges and unnecessarily so.

Local icons Abigail Kubeka and Dorothy Masuka were at the march and they too looked on in wonder at the statues and plaques, and gave praise for all the monument presented. To have access to a living monument was something the generations would benefit immensely from, they agreed among each others.

But as soon as the crowds dispersed and the sun set on the day, the statues were taken into the multi-storey building, and there is where they have stayed since.

A lack of security, failure to secure a fire licence, and many other excuses have been given by the government for their failure to open the site to the public. Members of the public and students of nearby government and private buildings have over the year lamented the inaccessibility of the site, while students from university and colleges have come and gone without touring it. And, during a recent site visit by members of the DA as Women’s Moth ended and Heritage Month begun, spokesperson on Sports Arts and Culture Leanne De Jager said visitors to the city missed out on the magnificence of the monument.

“When they visit sites like Freedom Park and go through town this place would provide the perfect reminder of the history of the land,” she said. She was with DA minister for Sports Arts and Culture Kingsol Chabalala and the party’s Tshwane Interim Constituency Head Shaun Wilkinson and other officials, and as they walked around the ground floor they spoke of the pain of watching the monument go to waste amid the thousands spent on maintenance and upkeep every month.

“This monument has a huge potential to attract tourists and bring local and international investment, creating job opportunities for unemployed,” Chabalala said.

Outside the perimeters of the enclosed site are vendors who ply their trade by selling various artefacts, clothes and items of value, and they too becried the missed opportunity to make money and spread a piece of the country’s history to visitors from abroad who they knew would come through.

Mayors of Tshwane have come and gone and governments of the province and the country have changed in an ever revolving chorus, and when they did not promise to get the monument up and running they blamed provincial structures for their failure to get the city the tourism it so deserved.

And as the government failed to provide clear answers as to why the Living Monument remained unopened, often citing structural deficiencies in the buildings and the bridging of some building regulation, the lights to the building are kept on, the grounds kept in pristine condition, and a crew of maintenance people always on site, with, the DA says, money running into the hundreds of thousands.

ntando.makhubu@inl.co.za