Sekgoma�s house, Serowe (5)
Sandy Grant | Wednesday February 3, 2016 18:09
He said that, the people of Serowe, ‘must never repeat the mistake they did with the colonial Resident Commissioner’s house that was demolished to make way for developments. ‘You have made a big mistake’, he advised them, which ‘must never happen again. You must preserve these buildings because they are our national heritage.” These remarks now need to be given careful consideration by the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism so that they are made the basis for an entirely new Heritage policy.
That responsibility should not be left to the Department of National Museum which has not even been capable of producing a press statement about the Sekgoma House. All that we have been able to glean from it was the Director’s comment that it was renovated by his Department together with the Malwelamotse regiment.
Since then, the Weekend Post nicked a 1981 photo of mine of the old LMS house at Thataganyane, maintaining that it was Sekgoma’s house, although so obviously different, and attempted to fill in the gaps left by the Departmental Director. The house, it seems, is owned by the President, something which previous reporters have been unable to make known, and the cost of renovation amounted to P100,000. What exactly did the mophato and the Museum do? If it was contracted out who, or what undertook the job of renovation, how long did it take and what specific problems were encountered?
The problem is that the Department of National Museum is run like a secret society instead of functioning as one of the country’s foremost educational institutions. It looks inwards, incapable of understanding that the one and only reason for its existence is to educate and inform. If it can’t, or won’t communicate, it should be dumped. The point here is that the President has come up with an entirely new requirement which, can only be implemented by the the Department of National Museum which, for years past has lacked the necessary vision, the professional abilities, and even the understanding that is now needed.
Yes, the Department did indeed introduce the 100 Monuments Programme and subsequently, I believe, the second hundred, but this was surely at the President’s specific directive! Before then, it had drifted, unaware and unconcerned that the country has its own legacy of historic buildings which needed to be documented and if possible, saved.
Now, in the light of the President’s challenging comments, it would make much sense for the Department to list those historical buildings of value which we have lost in the last 50 years. But let me now bring attention to just one of such buildings, not least because the President had hit so hard at Serowe – the magnificent but now totally derelict Arthington Hall of 1931.
How could it happen that the LMS (UCCSA), the Serowe community, the Ministry, and the National Museum Department had zero interest not only in saving such a significant historic building but in utilising a community asset of considerable value?