Download PDFFrom early 2025, Khanya College received communication from the City of Johannesburg’s Directorate of Arts, Culture and Heritage (DACH) indicating an intention to evict the College from the Workers’ Museum East Cottages in Newtown. This communication raised serious concern, as Khanya College has long served as a gateway through which community organisations, social movements, and individual activists access the Workers’ Museum and its associated spaces.
In keeping with its institutional values of transparency, accountability, and participatory practice, Khanya College undertook extensive consultations with affected communities prior to submitting any formal response to the City. These consultations were conducted with the full knowledge of the City of Johannesburg and culminated in the formation of a broad-based public petition. Supported by 997 individuals and 87 civil society organisations, the petition was formally submitted to the Mayor’s Office on 22 September 2025 and received by Ms Phumzile Sithole. Communities, social movements, and activists involved in this process then organised themselves under the banner of the Defend Public Spaces Campaign (DPSC).
The central dispute concerns the use of the Workers’ Museum East Cottage. Khanya has consistently reiterated its commitment to finding an amicable and sustainable resolution, while calling for transparency, meaningful public consultation, and adherence to the City’s own participatory governance frameworks. The College has emphasised that participatory processes of this nature create an obligation to keep communities informed and actively involved in any proposed changes to the use of the Cottages.
A key point of contention is an allegation by DACH that the East Cottage was being used as a storage facility. Following the submission of the petition, the City undertook to conduct an inspection in loco to assess this claim. Despite repeated assurances from City officials, this inspection had not taken place by the close of operations in 2025. There is no indication that the City has followed due process by investigating the allegations made by DACH or by adequately responding to the substantive issues raised in the petition.
On 2 December 2025, the Director of DACH, Mr Vuyisile Mshudulu, wrote to Khanya College, necessitating a formal response from the College’s Director. In this correspondence, the City proposed a new User Agreement of only two years’ duration. In its response, Khanya College welcomed the offer as a basis for engagement, while also outlining a constructive way forward and identifying grounds for discussion around a longer-term agreement.
Khanya has argued that a longer-term user agreement would ensure continued community access to the Cottages while safeguarding the continuation of public, educational, and cultural programmes at the Workers’ Museum East Cottage. This position is grounded in Khanya’s more than 25 years of sustained educational, cultural, and public-interest work at the site, a history that is well documented and widely recognised.
Through the consultation process, communities have clearly expressed their desire for Khanya to continue and to assume a custodial role at the Workers’ Museum. Khanya regards calls for such a role as a public responsibility that the City must meaningfully engage with when considering the future use of the Cottages.
Given the constraints of the year-end period and other institutional commitments, Khanya proposed that further consultations take place in early 2026. These would include a formal investigation of the petition by the City, deliberations by the Khanya College Board, continued engagement with community stakeholders, and structured negotiations aimed at securing a long-term user agreement that serves both heritage and public interests.
At the core of Khanya College’s position is the belief that the Workers’ Museum should remain a living, accessible public space that serves working-class communities, students, and the broader public. The College has reaffirmed its willingness to work collaboratively with the City and has welcomed engagement that advances heritage protection, public education, and meaningful participation.
Khanya College invites community members and the Defend Public Spaces Campaign to a meeting on 7 February 2026 to discuss the future of the Cottages.
This article is an opinion piece submitted on 21 January 2026. The views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect those of Karibu! Online or Khanya College. You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and Karibu! Online (www.Karibu.org.za), and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
