- The Heart of Cape Town Museum, dedicated to the world’s first human heart transplant, faces an uncertain future after the curator’s lease was not renewed.
- The Groote Schuur Hospital Facility Board plans to revamp the museum but without the current curator’s private collection.
- The museum’s contents, including valuable artifacts, are at risk of being removed or relocated.
The curator of the Heart of Cape Town Museum says he is being kept in the dark regarding the facility’s future after being informed that his lease agreement would not be renewed.
The medical museum is based at the Old Main building at Groote Schuur Hospital.
Over 56 years ago, Prof Christiaan Barnard and a medical team of experts made history by performing the world’s first human heart transplant.
Patient Louis Washkansky became the recipient of a young woman named Denise Darvall’s heart (“56 years since the first heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town”, People’s Post, 4 December 2023).
ALSO READ | 56 years since the first heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town
The operation occurred in the walls of the Charles Saint Theatre. In December 1992 it was turned into a museum.
According to Hennie Joubert, the museum curator, he has a 20-year lease agreement with the Groote Schuur Hospital Facility Board (GSHFB).
Letter
Joubert says the GSHFB informed him earlier this year that his lease agreement would not be renewed. “They sent me a letter to say I must be out of the museum by 4 July 2025.”
Joubert revamped the museum 18 years ago and it was opened on 3 December 2007, which marked the 40th anniversary of the historical procedure.
Joubert says:
He says he decided to take over the museum to honour Barnard’s memory. “I knew Chris Barnard, he was friends with my father. They worked together in Ceres. My father went to Ceres as a general practitioner and he asked Christiaan Barnard to come and help him. They worked together for quite a while. He often came to us in Ceres. He was a man that I knew.”
According to Joubert, he “has no idea” why they don’t want to renew the lease. “I don’t know what their objective is. I don’t know why they want to do it. I bought all the copyrights of the photographs that Don Mckenzie took, he travelled with Chris Barnard for 16 years. I also bought the copyrights of the film that is also shown in the museum.
“Most of the stuff in the museum is mine. What am I going to do with it? Do I put it in storage or take it to the museum in Beaufort West?”
The Beaufort West Museum houses the Chris Barnard and Medical Science Exhibition.
The GSHFB confirmed that the lease agreement will not be renewed.
Original state
In a statement, in response to People’s Post, the GSHFB wrote: “The existing arrangement with the private curator enabled the hospital to combine its artifacts with that of the private collection to bring greater fidelity to the exhibits. However, after many lengthy engagements over the last few years to try and secure the purchase of this private collection, the facility board has decided to abandon these efforts and restore the museum to its original state.”
According to the board, the museum will not shut down but will continue “as a space to commemorate the first heart transplant”.
READ | Groote Schuur Hospital celebrates 85 years of dedicated service
The board says the museum will be redeveloped to reflect all the “many world and continental firsts” associated with the hospital.
“This is an inimitable part of the hospital’s extraordinary history and is one of its proudest achievements. However, Groote Schuur Hospital is world-renowned for its clinical and scientific achievements and has recently been ranked number one in the world as a teaching hospital brand,” reads a GSHFB statement.
According to Joubert, the GSHFB offered to purchase the contents of the museum from him but he declined.
However, the GSHFB says while it was in talks with the “private curators, no final offer was made”.
Joubert explains that everything in the museum holds sentimental value.
“There are personal things that people donated to me because they believe that I will look after them. This is something that Cape Town must have, its history.
“You can’t take history away. I’m just sad. It will be a sad day when I walk out there. I devoted many years to it.”
Unique and historic
In an interview with People’s Post, Karin Barnard Berman, wife of the late Christiaan, expressed sadness.
“I find it strange that they would want to dispose of something like that. I am not sure why they want to take it away. I think it is sad because it is so unique on the continent of Africa, as it’s a historic event for Africa.”
One of the founders of the original museum Emeritus Professor Johan Brink, part-time senior surgeon at the Chris Barnard Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital, explains that he hopes the legacy of the world’s first heart transplant performed by the late Prof Barnard “with the support of a team of academic medical leaders” will continue and that the museum will continue to flourish.
The GSHFB says it recognises and commends the private curators for their “incredible work” in showcasing the achievements of the first heart transplant.
The GSHFB further says it feels privileged to build on the efforts of the private curators. “We are excited by the opportunity to reimagine the museum as a more inclusive space, representative of the contemporary achievements of our world-leading clinicians, researchers, and scientists. This is the proud legacy of the first heart transplant and one we will continue to celebrate for generations to come.”
