Burglary at Museum Africa leads to flooding, security to be beefed up
A burglary at the Museum Africa in Newtown, Johannesburg, has led to flooding and damage to exhibits, including the hip hop music exhibits, after water pipes were broken.
MMC for community development Margaret Arnolds said there were internal processes underway to assess the damage to the facility.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Osmic Menoe (@osmicmenoe) on
Terrible news about Museum Africa, an institution sadly long left vulnerable and neglected.
— Johannesburg In Your Pocket 📚 (@JohannesburgIYP) November 3, 2020
And especially devastating to hear of Osmic Menoe's Museum of Hip Hop, entirely destroyed by the flooding water 😞 pic.twitter.com/pIlu5RhAzr
Now who the hell broke into Museum Africa?? Yhu ayisembi. pic.twitter.com/Iyp4MLtpdI
— Thembi M 🧘🏾♀️ 🐉 🌙🌈 (@ThembiMatroshe) November 3, 2020
Museum Africa is home to the largest collection of archive photos of greater JHB – these are largely undigitised, only accessible in person, managed by an increasingly dwindling staff, stored in a basement... I am really worried that these were affected by the flooding.
— Dr N. Brodie נחמה (@brodiegal) November 3, 2020
Arnolds said the museum is one of the “flagship” institutions of the city tasked with the “protection, preservation and promotion” of heritage in the country and continent.
She said the city is in the process of “beefing up” security at facilities to avoid burglaries and vandalism.
“I am disturbed by these criminal acts which are undermining service delivery. There are elements who have no regard for the important of heritage institutions.
“These acts come at a great cost to service delivery as resources have to be redirected for repairs, maintenance and security that would have assisted with other programmes.”
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