The South African Department of Public Works is to spend millions of rands this year to upgrade various museums around the country, including the renovation of the Kruger House museum — an icon of Afrikaner nationalism in central Pretoria.
More than R20-million is also to be spent on the harbour at the Robben Island museum complex, where former president Nelson Mandela was held for the bulk of his 27-year term on the island prison. This includes repairs to the breakwater at the harbour and the renovation of part of the prison complex.
According to the particulars of the building programme for 2003/04, an amount of between R300 000 rand and R2-million is to be spent on the Kruger House, which was the central Pretoria home used by the President of the Transvaal Republic, Paul Kruger.
The home of Kruger’s friend and benefactor Sammy Marks, a Jewish businessman who lived at Zwartkoppies, east of Pretoria, will also have a similar amount spent on upgrading — a picture-perfect Victorian home that includes a fine collection of South African books of the period and contemporary art.
These two items in this year’s building programme are included in an amount of R44,9-million being spent on Department of Arts and Culture buildings in Gauteng.
The Kruger House was built in 1884, the architect being Tom Claridge from the then Orange Free State and builder Charles Clark from Pretoria. One of the key elements of the building programme was milk, which was used instead of
water to mix the cement because it was thought to be of poor quality. It was also one of the first homes in Pretoria to use electricity.
Kruger became president of the Transvaal at the age of 57 in 1882 but was driven from Pretoria during the Anglo-Boer South African War by the British. He died in 1904 in Switzerland.
The Sammy Marks museum is almost unchanged since the Victorian era.
Marks acted as a mediator between the British and Boers and retained good ties with both sides. Marks, who also counted among his friend Cecil John Rhodes, Barney Banato and Lord Roberts, often acted as adviser to Kruger and
played a key role in getting him British funding for a railway line to Delagoa Bay — now Mozambique. — I-Net Bridge