An official has warned that one of Grahamstown's oldest institutions, the Albany Museum, may be forced to close due to steep municipal property rates.
An official has warned that one of Grahamstown's oldest institutions, the Albany Museum, may be forced to close due to steep municipal property rates.
In a letter addressed to the Makana Municipality in December last year, museum manager Bongani Mgijima said: "If the museum does not succeed in getting a 100 percent rates rebate from council it will have to close its doors much to the detriment of the public it serves."
The Albany Museum is comprised of seven buildings: the Natural Sciences Museum and the History Museum on Somerset Street, the Observatory Museum, Fort Selwyn, the Old Provost military prison, Drostdy Arch and the Old Priest’s House which is leased to the National English Literary Museum.
Mgijima warned that the museum might have to close shop, because about two-thirds of its annual grant from the Department of Sport Recreation Arts and Culture of the Eastern Cape government is used to pay their municipal rates for the seven buildings that comprise the museum.
"[We] currently receive a grant of R798 000 per annum," Mgijima says in the letter. "About R500 000 goes towards paying for property rates and very little goes towards the public benefit function for which it was initially established for."
Mgijima, who did not want to speak to Grocott's Mail because the museum's application has yet to receive a response from the municipality, did confirm the authorship of the letter. In 2002 the museum (which is a non-profit organisation, or NPO) requested that South African Revenue Services (SARS) confirm its status as a NPO and its exemption from paying municipal rates or income tax.
After a lengthy wait, the museum received a favourable responce from SARS in August last year, confirming its tax exemption status, hence the letter to the municipality in December.
On Monday last week, a municipal committee meeting — where the museum's application would be tabled for discussion — was postponed. Writing in the agenda document for the postponed meeting, Jackson Ngcelwane, the municipal chief financial officer, recommended "that if the portfolio committee approves the exemption of property rates to Albany Museum, it [is]recommended [that]Council approves [the]exemption from 2011/12 financial year…"
The Albany Museum was established in 1855 and is the second oldest museum in South Africa, after the South African Museum (established in 1825 and based in Cape Town). All of its museum properties are in the name of its board of trustees.
It is also an affiliated research institute of Rhodes University. According to the Income Tax Act 36 of 1996, Albany Museum should be exempt from paying income tax. This, said Mgijima in his letter, is the case in three other museums in the province (including the Bayworld Museum Complex in Port Elizabeth) which are exempt from paying municipal property rates.
"The [museum]provides an educational, cultural and scientific service to the Makana Municipality. Needless to say it is a major tourist attraction in the Makana area." The musuem's application is still pending.
