Residents have threatened to take the City of Cape Town to court over council’s decision to close the Tygervalley Library.
This was one of the sentiments expressed at an information session the City hosted at the Durbanville Library last week.
The sudden announcement of the library’s closure in January this year drew wide-spread shock by residents and patrons, some who have been visiting the library for more than 30 years.
Council ratified the decision on 15 December last year, citing a decision by the City to reduce external leases.
Around 30 people attended the information session held last Tuesday where they could ask officials questions and voice concerns.
Gerhard Fourie, subcouncil 7 chair, explained they as councillors didn’t know about the decision either.
“We feel the same pain as you feel with regards to the closing of the library and the facility inside Tygervalley.”
Ronel Viljoen, who was elected as ward councillor on 1 November, said library services’ expenses were becoming unmanagable.
“We are getting discount from Tyger Valley Centre, they have negotiated rates before, but its getting to a point that we can’t manage those fees anymore.”
She said the budget the provincial government receives from the national government has been cut.
“Province can’t give us more money and the City is currently funding some of the libraries, that’s why we started looking at the external leases.”
Public concerns soon dominated the discussion as residents lashed out against, among other things, a lack of public participation over the decision.
“This is not public participation, I don’t know what this is,” said Welgemoed resident and advocate Louise Ferreira, before raising legal points as to why the closure is ungrounded.
“The decision, she said, is ultra vires – beyond the City’s legal power or authority.
“This is a fight, to my mind, between City and province, because the City and province couldn’t sit around a table and sort this out.”
The legality of the decision raised so many concerns that a committee of 10 people was established from the attendees.
This committee will meet on 14 March to see what can be done about the matter. They will be in dialogue with the City and library services.
Other concerns raised included the timing of the announcement and that the report about why the library should close isn’t easily accessible to others.
More than one person said they feel safer coming to the library and how its accessibility and proximity to shops is an advantage.
One person remarked how the drop in public services didn’t mean a decrease in rates.
“Our rates go up, but services decline,” one attendee said.
