Liberation struggle veteran and company director Paul Langa has been appointed as new head of the Robben Island Museum.
Langa (54), who has been a member of the museum council, will assume the newly created post of CEO, the council said on Thursday.
He has been acting as an interim director in tandem with fellow council member MP Ben Martins since the controversial resignation of Andre Odendaal in 2002.
Asked at a media briefing whether he is pleased or apprehensive over the appointment, Langa said: ”I don’t know. It’s a sacrifice that I’ve taken, that I should do.”
Council chairperson Ahmed Kathrada said in a statement that the island is an icon of struggle in South Africa and is held very dear in the hearts of millions.
”Therefore, we had to find the right person. Paul Langa is that person and he will ensure that Robben Island maintains its heritage, cultural and conservation value.”
Langa, who studied political science at the University of the Witwatersrand before leaving the country to join Umkhonto weSizwe, served a 14-year sentence on Robben Island.
After the unbanning of the African National Congress, he served as the party’s national organiser, then as ANC security head.
Since then, he has been involved in business as a director of security companies.
He said on Thursday the museum has gone through a painful period of ”slight mistrust”, but is now at a stage where it has a clear vision.
”I have been stored in that area for 14 years,” he said. ”The sacrifice that one brings now is to impart the heritage processes and the pain that that placed shared, to other people. The coming generation should never find themselves [being dragged] down into the same mistakes.
”This history must be maintained and retained, for the future generations to take over.”
Former museum deputy director Denmark Tugwana, who has been appointed Langa’s chief operations officer, told journalists one of the museum’s focus areas over the next three years will be ”product development”.
The island has to make sure it offers ”differentiated” tours, giving visitors more time and opportunity to see everything they want.
The maximum-security prison will undergo a complete upgrade, and the Sobukwe house will be opened up to allow visitors to go inside and ”interact with the space”.
The island’s conference facilities will be upgraded to complement, rather than compete with, facilities on the mainland.
He rejected suggestions that the island is in danger of losing its status as a World Heritage Site, saying delisting is done only where a site has ”totally collapsed”, such as in a war situation where artefacts are being looted and management structures are virtually absent.
”Robben Island is very, very far from that,” he said. — Sapa