Thanks to a pilot project based in Grahamstown South Africa's wealth of heritage and history now has over 40 new guardians. The South African Heritage Resources Agency (Sahra) Integrated Heritage Resources Management Course launched in May this year and has finally produced its first graduates.
Thanks to a pilot project based in Grahamstown South Africa's wealth of heritage and history now has over 40 new guardians. The South African Heritage Resources Agency (Sahra) Integrated Heritage Resources Management Course launched in May this year and has finally produced its first graduates.
After six months of training 41 of the 45 course participants from heritage agencies all over South Africa graduated at a ceremony held at the Environmental Learning and Research Centre next to the Makana Botanical Gardens. One of the course co-ordinators Prof Heila Lotz-Sisitka explained that through the course the scholars gained critical understanding of things like heritage policies and management practices.
During the course each participant focused on a heritage project of their choice and had to record the project's progress, engage with relevant heritage legislature and ensure that it was sustainable. Project topics included the redevelopment of the Eastern Cape Star Gallery, the Petrified Forest/Fossil Bed preservation in KwaZulu-Natal and the establishment of the Nkonkobe Museum in Alice.
“Our heritage sector was in distress,” said heritage policy research and development director Mbhazima Makhubele, of the Department of Arts and Culture. “There were no internship programmes and the experts in the various fields were on the verge of retirement with no successors.
“If we didn't start addressing it with pro-active programmes like this, we would find ourselves in a national crisis,” Makhubele said in a speech at the ceremony.
Grahamstown's Basil Mills, an administrator at the National English Literary Museum, was one of the programme's participants. “Everyone presented their projects to the class and we were all blown away by how good they were,” Mills said. “My project involves the youth of Cradock who have been greatly neglected. The area is rich with literary history and we raised this awareness with festivals and numerous projects.”
Sahra chair Prof Samadoda Fikeni also made an appearance to congratulate the group. He proudly declared, “We can shout it from the mountain tops; heritage is one of the most important aspects in our community and thanks to people like yourselves, we will never forget that”.
