Durban — Ten years after the eThekwini Municipality council authorised the development of a new central city library at the Centrum Site development in Durban nothing has materialised nor has a brick been laid.
Now the city could fork out more than R6.9 million to renew the lease of Don Africana Reference Library situated in Liberty Towers on Pixley KaSeme (West Street). The eThekwini Community Services Committee tabled a report before the Executive Council to note the expiry of the lease contract on March 31, 2023.
The report stated that the reasons behind the intention to extend this lease for a further three-year period was that the premises adequately accommodates the needs of the library in terms of size and location and is located in the central business district close to transport routes. It is also easily accessible to the general public, learners and students.
It was also reported that the Parks, Recreation and Culture Unit has been advised of the departmental plan to move the Don Africana Reference Library to the new Centrum Library once built.
The report stated that with the lease expiring and the construction of the new Centrum Library not yet off the starting blocks yet, a need exists to extend the lease in the current premises as this is considered a strategic location for the library and adequately caters for the needs of the local communities from various areas due to the central location of the library.
In order to avoid incurring irregular expenditure and to ensure uninterrupted service delivery, the report recommended to the executive committee that Section 116 (3) of the Local Government Municipal Finance Management Act, be invoked to renew the lease for a further period of three years. The matter will come under discussion at Full Council meeting on Friday.
The new library within the Centrum was supposed to be completed in 2016. In January 2022, the Daily News sister publication The Mercury reported that the plan to develop the Durban Centrum site in the Gugu Dlamini precinct is going ahead with the municipality issuing an “expression of interest” for interested investors.
“In light of the financial situation of the city caused by Covid-19 and the recent civil unrest, the city’s executive management structures have authorised the Economic Development Cluster to proceed with the process of seeking an ‘Expression of Interest (EOI)’ from potential private investors for the re-development of Centrum,” the sister publication quoted from a report.
Daily News