EDITOR – We refer to two articles published in your newspaper regarding a mural that was painted on the Manning Road Methodist Church’s boundary wall.
Amafa, the provincial heritage conservation agency for KwaZulu Natal (the statuary body tasked with protecting our heritage) has confirmed that as the church is a ‘listed’ heritage building of importance, any person wishing to alter it, must by law apply to them for a permit to do so. This was not done. And even though the person who commissioned the mural was warned by a member of her congregation that she was breaking the law, she ignored his warning and went ahead regardless. Now one pro-muralist calls this ‘initiative’. We disagree.
Save Our Berea posted the second Berea Mail article on our Facebook page and invited residents to comment. The feedback we got indicated that while the message and quality of the mural is not in dispute, the fact it was painted on a listed heritage building without permission was unacceptable. Residents felt, as we did, that there are other less invasive options available to get a message across, and that the mural must be removed and the wall restored.
While we support any initiative that raises awareness around global warming, or any other issue important to the well-being of our community, and we recognise the value of street art in bringing communities together, enhancing our urban spaces and sparking debate, we do not support defacing a listed heritage building or breaking the law in order to do so. One law broken, no matter how insignificant to some, is one too many. After all we live in a democracy where if you don’t like a law, you have the full right to motivate to change it. In any orderly society this is what you do.
We are also concerned that one of the ‘pro-muralists’ chose to paint Amafa as the bad guy in this sad story. This is nothing but a cheap ploy to deflect the focus off the central issue. Unfairly accusing Amafa of allowing ‘hundreds of heritage buildings to decay’ is simply a false narrative. We work closely with Amafa. We also work with the many residents who come to us for help regarding heritage buildings under threat. We know from experience that Amafa does its part to the best of its ability but is severely hampered by limited resources. In our experience the problem lies not with Amafa, but with the shoddy enforcement meted out by eThekwini Municipality and SAPS who are tasked with working with Amafa to enforce compliance but who fail time and again to do so.
Cheryl Johnson
Kevin Dunkley
Save Our Berea
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