Grahamstown has a wonderful old station building, 142 years old. Or had. The building is being stripped systematically by vandals, and the owners, Transnet, seem unwilling to or incapable of defending their property – our property, since Transnet is a state enterprise.
Grahamstown has a wonderful old station building, 142 years old. Or had. The building is being stripped systematically by vandals, and the owners, Transnet, seem unwilling to or incapable of defending their property – our property, since Transnet is a state enterprise.
Since it is a heritage building, the owners are obligated in law to maintain it.
The Grahamstown Residents’ Association (GRA) has organized a petition objecting to the neglect of the building that has allowed vandals to strip it for scrap, destroying an important part of our heritage and a vital community resource. Why is this an environmental issue?
First, the urban environment is part of the environment – it is our habitat, and our health and viability as a species depends just as much on our habitat as wild species rely on their habitat. Secondly, public transport has a much lower environmental footprint than private transport.
With the growing price of petrol, long-range taxis are becoming non-viable economically, so there is also a safety issue. Less wealthy students and others in our community unable to afford private cars or expensive options like shuttles or even bus services are increasingly resorting to hitch-hiking, a dangerous practice.
A Rhodes student was murdered while hitch-hiking to her graduation in 2012. So there are many arguments for restoring train service to Grahamstown – obviously a lot easier if we have a station building. In the meantime, the station could be a valuable resource for community projects.
Today is the closing date for the petition. If you can find a form at one of the many sites around town including Makana Tourism, the Provost Coffee Shop at Rhodes, the Albany Natural History Museum and many others, please do so.
Otherwise, look for the online petition at heritageportal.co.za/notice/makana-residents%E2%80%99-petition-save-our-station but please sign soon.
What happens next?
Once we have the final count of signatures in, GRA will submit the petition to Transnet with copies to local, provincial and national government.
Given lead times for this column, I cannot report an accurate count as of today, but it passed 1400 a week ago, with a number of forms still outstanding and the potential for the on-line form to gather many more signatures.
A petition in itself cannot do much – even with enough signatures to impress those being petitioned, follow-up action is required. Once the final count is in, GRA will assess options.
One that I favour is putting the building in the hands of a community organization that will take charge of securing it and raising funds to restore it. I am in the process of starting a nation-wide association of co-operatives under the banner South Africa Winning Nation (SA Win) dedicated to promoting active citizenship and constructive community projects aiming at community-building, promoting entrepreneurship, improving skills and education, and making rights more accessible to ordinary people.
You can read more about SA Win at facebook.com/SAwinActive.
Find us Online: grocotts.co.za/environews
Contacts for Makana Enviro-News: Nikki Köhly: n.kohly@ru.ac.za, 046 603 7205 | Jenny Gon: j-gon@intekom.co.za, 046 622 5822 | Trisha Nathoo: nathootrisha83@gmail.com, 078 584 9496 | Nick James: nickjames@intekom.co.za, 082 575 9781 | Philip Machanick: p.machanick@ru.ac.za, 046 603 8635 | Strato Copteros: strato@iafrica.com, 082 785 6403
