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The ugly walls around Beyers Naude Square - the city's original marketplace - have been torn down. A more natural look for the space is in the offing.
THE last vestiges of apartheid have come tumbling down in Beyers Naude Square in downtown Joburg.
A front-end loader removes the much-despised concrete structures in the square
The ugly box structures built in the mid-1980s by the government of the time - and that have had the heritage community pulling its hair out ever since - have finally been demolished.
Heritage champion Flo Bird says the structures were meant to cushion the square from traffic noise.
"The walls or giant pissoirs were the grand idea of the architects Meyer Pienaar & Associates who managed to persuade [mayor] Eddy Magid and the Johannesburg Management Committee of this absolutely appalling scheme which they claimed would protect the square from the traffic noise."
In the process, several flower sellers were removed from the square, and never returned.
Now Joburgers will regain the full use of their historic square once again.
New-look square
Demolition started a month ago and the new-look square is expected to be unveiled towards the end of July. Front-end loaders are busy taking away the last of the rubble, and workmen are sitting atop the steel skeletons, dismantling the last structure.
They were originally built around the ramps leading down to and out of the underground parking area underneath the square. Now four planters - the tallest outside wall of which will reach 1,8 metres - will be built over the four ramps, and the square will take on a more natural look to replace its former concrete and brick face.
"The planters will not enclose the square, but will prevent people from falling into the ramps," says Yanda Tolobisa, assistant development manager of the Johannesburg Development Agency, the body overseeing the renovation.
Two towers of 5,5 metres by six metres, with concrete bases and tall glass top pieces carrying an image of Beyers Naude at the pulpit, will be positioned at the corners of Market and President streets, and Simmonds Street. The images will be lit from within, and one will face outwards to the street, the other inwards towards the square, says architect Nina Cohen of Cohen & Judin Architects.
The project is costing R5,8-million.
Original Market Square
The square, originally called Market Square because it was Joburg's first market place, defined the development of the town. The first government buildings were built on its eastern border, and by 1895, nine years after Joburg came into existence, shops, offices and banks lined its other borders.
On the eastern side of the square produce and general items were on sale; the western half was reserved for cattle sales. This market was moved to Newtown in 1913, when the new building, now Museum Africa and the Market Theatre, was built.
City Hall, opened in 1915, and the central library, opened in 1935, took large bites of the eastern and western sides of the square. Both City Hall and the square belong to the Gauteng provincial government.
Variously referred to over the years as Market Square Gardens, City Hall Gardens, Library Gardens, and Harry Hofmeyr Gardens, the square was renamed Beyers Naude Square in recent years. Naude, a former dominee in the Dutch Reformed Church, was a passionate anti-apartheid campaigner, and was banned by the apartheid government. He received the freedom of the city in 2001.
In 2004, new plans were hatched for the square - the provincial government, which also owns several buildings around it, planned to demolish 10 buildings in the vicinity to create a government precinct.
It was to encompass a street underpass, skywalks joining buildings, underground parking, and the focal point, New Heritage Square, to the south of and adjoining the present Beyers Naude Square. The square, which would double in size, was to contain an amphitheatre, a multi-functional Tswana homestead and a symbolic obelisk and "Orientation Wall".
Plans were shelved after the heritage community objected to the demolition of the buildings, and the South African Heritage Resources Agency's appeals committee approved the demolition of only five of the 10 buildings.
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