Protest at City Hall, calling for Main Library to be reopened

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After 12 years the city’s main library remains closed.

And on Sunday, supporters of Gqeberha’s historic Main Library staged a mini-protest in front of City Hall calling for the historic institution, to be reopened.

The 178-year-old library on Govan Mbeki Avenue in Central was closed in 2014 for renovations and the first phase was completed in 2019.

But it has remained closed with the approved budget for phase two repeatedly redirected to other matters by the metro, despite an outcry from the public and heritage activists.

The bizarreness of the situation has been highlighted by the increasingly popular guided tours of the library.

Three tours were scheduled to take place on Sunday alone, with the participants mostly comprising tourists from the latest visiting passenger liner.

One of the protesters, Johan van Rooyen, 26, a board member of the Central Special Rating Area, which co-organised the protest together with the Main Library Friends, said he hoped it would make a difference.

“Central is the historic heart of Gqeberha and it is also home to about 5,000 students who really need this library to be open so they can study.

“Where I studied in Potchefstroom, the public library was open until 10pm to give us a safe place to study, and so long as this library is closed, we don’t have that here.”

He said the library’s heritage status was another reason to finish the renovations.

“We should not have to fight to access our public library.”

Built in 1848, the Victorian Gothic building features stained glass windows, a spiral interior balcony and shelves bulging with books, documents, maps and other literary artefacts.

It is also home to a prized Africana section and a study room which was previously used by students and other researchers before the building was closed.

Main Library Friends chair Graham Taylor said the organisation had been making formal submissions to the metro for the past three years, calling for phase-two renovations to be completed and the library to be opened.

Handing over a petition in this regard to Nelson Mandela Bay municipal petitions officer Mxolisi Mani, he said the metro had so far remained unresponsive.

“We demand that you consider our request ... in compliance with the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act ... and responsibly open the library for public use.”

Mani said the relevant directorates of the metro would engage with the petition and if necessary it would also be referred to the provincial government.

“But we will get back to you within 21 days.

“We must work together on this thing.”