Asking motorists to hoot to save their library, patrons of Plumstead Public Library held a protest in Main Road on Mandela Day (Monday 18 July).
Located in The Village Square shopping mall, the library is set to close its doors at the end of February or March next year “in the face of budget constraints” and “in line with council’s decision to delimit external leases”, the City of Cape Town has said.
Community members, who support and use the library, are asking the City to if not retain the current venue at least find another, less expensive one in Plumstead.
News of the library’s predicted closure first broke at the beginning of this year.
Community members who support and use the library reacted with outrage.
One patron Toni Balona, who is also secretary of the Friends of Plumstead Library, started a petition, asking for the library to remain open.
When People’s Post spoke to her at the protest last week, Balona said she had been spending her Saturdays walking up and down Main Road, asking residents to sign the petition.
She said, so far, she had garnered 700 signatures. She shared one nine-year-old boy burst out in tears when she told his parents of the library’s pending closure.
“That little boy cried his eyes out. He saw me and he said, ‘What are you doing?’ I said I am asking your mom and dad to sign my petition. He said, ‘Why?’ I said because they are going to close the library. And he burst into tears. I nearly died. I though what had I done? So I said to him, look, I am working for you, I am working for you kids.”
Pending closure
In a “report to the Executive Mayor together with the mayoral committee and council on the library and information services: reconfiguration of services”, dated 21 September 2021, the City’s department of Community Services and Health asked that the closure of the library, among others, be considered.
The report described the library as “mostly providing services to the elderly and people working in the area, with minimal programmes on offer”. It also stated that Southfield (2,2 km) and Wynberg (2,4 km) libraries were within the immediate vicinity.
“By closing this facility other library services points are still accessible well within the set standards,” the report read.
Anna Young, a patron of the library for many years who took part in last Monday’s protest, took offence at these arguments.
“One newspaper reporting on the closure said it was just the elderly people who use it, they can walk to Wynberg or they can walk to Southfield. I got so cross, I literally threw the paper away. How dare they? What are they going to do when they are old?” asked Young.
Another patron, who asked to remain anonymous, said small pleasures would be taken away from people.
“There is a scrabble club, a knitting club, a book club. Some of us have grown up in this area and this library has been here since we were kids. It is a village atmosphere. You take a library away and you are really taking away a little institution,” she said.
Community cornerstone
Khalid Sayed, a member of the African National Congress (ANC) in the Western Cape Legislature, attended the protest.
He said it was important that the library remained open as it was serving an important purpose in the community: encouraging a culture of reading.
“Many, particularly of our senior citizens who are here today, don’t generally have access to literature at home. It is also a space for them to gather, particularly in the post-Covid period.
“The library is a meeting point but more importantly it is a place where people can read and empower themselves. By closing this library, the City of Cape Town is taking away that very important space of culture and learning,” said Sayed.
Judy Hermans, another ANC provincial parliament member, said that it was very fitting that the protest was held on Mandela Day.
“We know that Mandela stood for young people and for education. In this day and age, given the societal ills that our children are faced with, to close a library is like an act against the community,” said Hermans. She added that every effort had to be made to engage with the City and whoever else the stakeholders were to ensure that the service would be continued.
Garnering support
Balona previously expressed her despondency at her seemingly futile efforts to engage with the City on the pending closure of the public facility with People’s Post.
She also claimed that Eddie Andrews, councillor for Ward 63, had not been helpful.
“I have spoken to Eddie Andrews and felt he was not interested in helping. I felt our conversation went nowhere; he kept telling me ‘they have options’,” she said at the time.
Last week, Balona again bemoaned the seemingly lack of interest shown by the councillor.
People’s Post contacted Andrews for comment, but by the time of going to press, no feedback had been received.
Who had been supportive, Balona said, was Dr Wesley Seale, leader of ANC in Ward 63.
Seale was instrumental in organising last week’s protest.
Present at the protest, Seale said they were not interested in shouting viva ANC at the event.
“We are interested in highlighting a very important public good and a public service and that is the library. Even DA (Democratic Alliance) people have reached out to me, even members of GOOD and the FF+, and have said, ‘We support this campaign’. That is what it is about,” he said.
Seale said besides holding activities like the protest, they would try and give out pamphlets at local schools and to hold their own community meeting.
“The second kind of approach, we are going to take is to get our ANC councillors in Council just to hear what is happening, and to oppose it there,” he said.
Alternative sites
According to Seale, there are at least four City-owned properties in the vicinity that are standing empty – 3 Lympleigh Road, 4 Lympleigh Road, 9 Dalegarth Road and 19 Waterbury Road.
“To our knowledge, the City is paying security to look after them. What we are simply saying is, these properties belong to you. Save a month or two of rent, spruce up the place, renovate it and move the library in there,” said Seale.
Asked if moving the library to any of these properties would be viable, the City last week responded that not all the properties listed were City property and that they were still investigating the list provided.
Patricia van der Ross, Mayco member for community services and health, however, did say that the City would take the needs of the patrons and sustainability of the services into account before making any final decision on this matter.
When People’s Post last asked the City in May when they were planning to engage with the public, the City said that they were in the process of determining the next steps and only once these were finalised would they engage with the public.
When People’s Post again directed this question at the City, Van der Ross said this process had not as yet been concluded.
“But upon completion thereof, stakeholder engagements will be scheduled,” said Van der Ross.
