‘Homeless should help clean up the sad state of the Benoni Town Hall’
The Town Hall is a particularly interesting piece of architecture (it has a sprung ball room dance floor) and it has a rather wonderful history
A resident who complained to ward councillor Sinethemba Matiwane and the City Times about the dire state of the Benoni Town Hall in February, said she is disappointed by the very watered-down letter which was published by the City Times and with the councillor’s passing the buck response.
Lorna Cochran raised concerns, supported with photographs, about the fact that the town hall has been allowed to degenerate into such a dreadful state.
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“Apart from showing respect for the intrinsic beauty of the architecture, I believe that allowing the town hall to degenerate into such a dreadful state destroys any functional use of it for functions and as such prevent it from being a financial contributor to the town,” Cochran said.
“The pictures speak for themselves. Accepting that items of historical nature of what some call ‘the colonial days’ might not have much, or for that matter any value to the ‘governors’ of today, but many people all over the world appreciate works of art and in this case rather excellent architecture.
“I do believe that simply keeping them in some form of respectable condition should not be asking too much.”
Cochran said she believes there is considerable opportunity for the town hall to be used to raise fund as it is an excellent site for formal gatherings.”
She asked Matiwane to respond to her letter, even if only to confirm that the status quo is acceptable to him and the council.
When the City Times published the article about the town hall becoming a shelter for the homeless during lockdown, Cochran’s son, Neil Cochran, contacted the City Times.
“In order to clarify the history, we as a family go back almost 100 years in the area, especially my mother who has ended up living in the Lions’ Old Peoples Home, a few blocks away from the town hall,” Cochran said.
He said the Town Hall is a particularly interesting piece of architecture (it has a sprung ball room dance floor) and it has a rather wonderful history.
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“It is situated on one of the primary access roads (Prince’s Avenue) and was always quite the pride and joy of the town.
“My mother and I certainly accept that what might have appealed to the councillors during our ‘colonial’ days might not have the same appeal to the current Ekurhuleni councillors, but in allowing the degeneration to the disgusting state might be perceived by many as throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
“The final point of my communication is simply that you published that the town hall had been allocated for use by some homeless people.
“This excited me because, as a bit of a student of human motivational theory, I saw this as an opportunity to use the homeless people to clean the whole site up and give them a sense of purpose and belonging.
“Unfortunately, we haven’t seen any such activity.”
