The process to rebuild the Southern Strand library says the City of Cape Town, is ongoing with the design process underway, and once this is completed, building plans for the new facility will be submitted.
Mayoral committee member for community services and health, Councillor Patricia Van der Ross revealed that the scope of the project has increased significantly and the value of the work more than doubled.
In the City’s last update on the rebuilding of this facility in February last year Ms van der Ross said funding needs to be sourced to rebuild.
In answer to whether funding for the project has now been sourced she replied: “A portion of the required funding is available as a result of the insurance claim; however this will more than likely not cover the full budget required to construct a new facility. We have not yet tabled the budget for Council’s approval.”
As to when the rebuilding process will commence, Ms van der Ross said this is depends on competion of other steps in the process.
“This can only be determined once building plans are approved and the total budgetary requirement has been presented to Council for consideration. We will be putting the cost estimate forward through the City’s budget process. There is overwhelming support for the project and we assume the budgetary request will be supported,” she explained.
The Southern Strand library, burnt down in February 2021 and the remains of the structure was demolished in 2022. Since then the property remained vacant and residents had no library services in their area.
Strand Secondary School pupil and Strand resident Laken Petersen (15) said: “The reason why I want our library to reopen is so that most of the children won’t need to go to Strand library for books because our library is closer and we mostly have school projects we need to do. Now we must go to Strand or Somerset West library.”
Another resident, Elka Petersen, who grew up in the area, valued the historical meaning and sentiment of the old libary.
“It was part of our history and many of our people came out of the library and went on to become professors, doctors and teachers and we miss the library a lot reason being that our children need to now either travel by taxi or walk to Strand library because many is not fortunate to have taxi fare.
“I used the library since I was a child up until the very sad incident happened. Our desire is just for the library to be rebuilt,” she said.
But not all residents share the same positive anticipation for the new facility. A couple, residing a street away from the library, who chose to remain anonymous, fears the library being rebuilt will once again be exposed to criminal elements in an area in what they refer to as ‘a crime hotspot’.
“If you logically look at the area where the library is, if its rebuild they people will break it down again. The husband suggested that security guards be put on duty 24 hours of the day to keep the facility safe from vandals.
The wife said before the library was destroyed it was already quiet and empty with not many people making use of it and added condition of the area no longer made the library a pleasure to visit.
She suggested the new facility be built smaller with just the necessary services in order to make the safeguarding of the facility easier.
“In general if we look at what’s happening now our children are mostly on their cell phones, they do all their assignments and research on the internet and if my daughter had assignments at times she sometimes wouldn’t find a lot of the information in the library and had to use the internet or go to Strand library to take books out.”
