Problems and Purpose

The Johannesburg City Library had been closed for over four years when the protests began in 2024 (Patrick, 2024). The library was closed in May 2021; however, access had already been reduced at the beginning of 2020, due to the Covid19 pandemic lockdown (Patrick, 2024). To confront the challenges that came with the closure of the city library, the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation (JHF) and other civic organisations under the banner of the Johannesburg Crisis Alliance (JCA) organised the protests outside the library to put pressure on the City of Johannesburg to open the library (Patrick, 2025). The JCA is a project of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation that was founded on 7 October 2023 (JCA, 2025). The JCA was established with the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA), Defend Our Democracy, The Joburg Inner-City Partnership and Action – For – Accountability as convening organisations (JCA, 2025). The JHF stated that the library is ‘essential for the education, literacy, and mental well-being of the nation’ (Martin, 2024). The JHF said its’ concern is for both the valuable book collections in the care of the Central Library as well as the structure itself, which is a protected heritage building (JHF, 2024).

Background History and Context

When the City of Johannesburg received a lot of pressure from citizens, after the city’s library failed to open for four years, residents protested outside the library demanding that it be opened. (Patrick, 2024; Simelane, 2024). On 18 May 2024, residents of Johannesburg, voiced dissatisfaction with the city’s non-response to calls to reopen the library, saying the library has always been used by young and old people for reading, studying, and using free access to the internet for research and job seeking (Haffejee, 2024). The library had initially, been closed to the public in March 2020, due to lockdown restrictions brought on by the Covid19 pandemic (JHF, 2024). However, on 24 May 2021, the city announced that the library would remain indefinitely closed ‘for major repairs and maintenance before the building can be deemed safe for use’, with the estimated date of re-opening being sometime during the 2025 financial year (JHF, 2024).

The library, which employs 50 permanent staff members and houses 8 collections that include African Studies, Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Young Adult Reference, Reference, Children’s Library, Adult Lending and a Newsroom including an e-classroom and a basement that contains newspaper and magazine editions, is a world class facility with archived information dating back to the mid 1900s (Patrick, 2024). The Johannesburg City Library, which turned 90 years old in 2025, has always been used by young and old people for reading, studying, and using free access to the internet for research and job seeking (Patrick, 2024; Haffejee, 2024). The library has almost 1.5 million items that include 700 000 books and 140 computer work stations and free Wi-Fi at the library is useful to the community (Patrick, 2024; Bhana, 2024).

The JHF threatened legal action against the city council and the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA), if it failed to heed calls to re-open the library but added that would be their last resort (Bhana, 2024). JHF founder, Flo Bird said she personally took up the matter of the re-opening of the library in September 2022 and the Foundation took the matter up in September 2023, and when it realised there was no cooperation from the authorities, it decided to organise a public protest (Bhana, 2024).

Employing participatory democracy by actively organising all the concerned residents and stakeholders to protest to the city, the JHF and JCA highlighted the importance of civil society in holding government accountable for service delivery.

Organizing, Supporting, and Funding Entities

The JHF and JCA were responsible for jointly organizing the campaign for the reopening of the library through organising petitions, writing media releases and organising public protests (JHF, 2024). The protest was attended by school pupils, students, academics, authors and civic right organisations (Simelane, 2024). The protest took place after demands had been made to the city to open the library (Simelane, 2024). The JHF and JCA also launched a petition for the re-opening of the library and gave the city a week to respond (Simelane, 2024). At the time, the JHF said if the city doesn’t respond to the petition, it will escalate the public pressure through sit-ins and other protest actions (Simelane, 2024).

The closure of the library was seen as being particularly painful as South Africa’s Grade 4 pupils have the worst reading ability in the world, with 81% unable to read for meaning (Majavu, 2023). The 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study tested 12 426 learners across South Africa and compared them to their age mates in 42 countries (Majavu, 2023). Some of the residents who were part of the protest said the closure of the library and the attitude of the city towards its opening was symptomatic of the instability of the coalition government in the City of Johannesburg (Majavu, 2023). The city has had four different mayors since 2021 (Haffejee, 2024). Organisers said they had invited city officials to the protest but none of them arrived (Haffejee, 2024).

Funding for the JHF and JCA is not available, however they state on their websites they are funded through donations. The refurbishment of the library was funded by the City in partnership with the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) (Patrick, 2024). The JDA said renovations that needed to be done included installation of fire doors, fire curtains, internal gutters and a water source for the library with a pump system (Patrick, 2024).

The city budgeted for the refurbishment and renovation over four financial years (Patrick, 2024). The city budgeted R5 million for the 2021/22, R10 million for the 2022/23 financial year, R11 million for the 2023/24 financial year and R54 million was required for the 2024/25 financial year in addition to the R25 million the council set aside for the 2024/25 financial year (Patrick, 2024). The JHF and JCA raised concerns with the high numbers that were budgeted for the renovations and expressed anger that the city spent R21 million fixing gutters (Patrick, 2024).

The attendance and participation of pupils, students, academics, authors and civil society demonstrated the diversity of voices that represent most sectors of society that rely on an important service such as that of a library for knowledge.

Participant Recruitment and Selection

The JHF and JCA jointly sent out an invitation in a form of a poster, calling on all stakeholders and concerned citizens to join the protest and show concern for the library (JHF, 2025). The poster was posted on the website and circulated on social media (JHF, 2025). No challenges were reported by any of the organisations on participation for the protest.

Methods and Tools Used

Drawing from the participatory democratic theory that highlights the concepts of collective action, accountability and empowerment, the residents of Johannesburg through the re-open the library campaign promoted social justice by demanding accountability and action from the city. Through these actions, citizens positioned themselves directly at the centre of legitimate and effective governance (Dacombe and Parvin, 2021, p. 146). This view is supported by Asenbaum, Bussu, Escobar and Harris (2025, p. 359) who states that participatory democracy involves a culture of civil society organisations that drive community programs and social movements.

Tools and techniques:

The re-opening of the library campaign included an online petition that was handed over to the city as indicated in figure 2, an in-person public protest outside the library, a social media campaign and media statements from both the JHF and JCA, putting pressure on the media to report on the issue, so the city can prioritise the matter (JHF, 2025). Putting pressure on state institutions is another aspect of collective action in participatory democracy (Endo, 2024, p. 1358).

The Stakeholder Forum, established by the JDA for regular stakeholder engagement amongst the involved parties that included the JHF, JCA and the city allowed for a successful refurbishment process (JHF, 2025). By setting up this forum, the City of Johannesburg was fulfilling its moral legal obligation as local government to deepen democracy and accountability by involving communities in its programs (Patience and Nel, 2021). Participation democracy involves the engagement of citizens in formal ways that include consultations, committee public hearings and participatory budget sessions as well as informal ones such as protests, volunteering or involvement in decision-making in the work-place (Dacombe and Parvin, 2021, p. 146).

The participation of school learners, students, academics, authors and ordinary citizens in the public protest ensured that the voices of the majority of the people who use the library are heard. Furthermore, the commitment by some of the authors who attended the protest to donate more books after the re-opening of the library demonstrated the seriousness of the cause. Their action embodies what Sørensen (2002, p. 557) calls empowerment, by taking control of the government of their society, influencing and participating in activities that empower their communities.

What Went On: Process, Interaction, and Participation

The process to engage the city to re-open the library took almost two years. Through several media releases that were issued, an online petition, social media campaign and a public protest outside the city’s library, the residents of Johannesburg exercised collective action by demanding accountability from both the city and the JDA. After the city announced that the library would remain indefinitely closed ‘for major repairs and maintenance, after it was only meant to be closed as part of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown restrictions, the residents empowered themselves through participatory democracy and demanded its re-opening. The JHF and the JCA communicated publicly through joint media statements which demonstrated a cooperative relationship and effective organisation. Effective organisation in groups is a sign of participatory democracy (Endo, 2024, p.1359 cites Goodin and Barry’s, 2021).

At the public protest, students challenged the city to open the library, saying its closure was disadvantaging students (Lata, 2024). A student who uses the library, Sphelele Magubane, said the city should not have waited more than three years before taking action on the closure of the library (Simelane, 2024). Another student, Mpendulo Mnyandu said, the library is central, making it easy for every student around the city to use it without having to travel much (Simelane, 2024). Twenty-year old, second year student at Wits University, Thobile Xilanga said he joined the protest because he supports education as reading is an important skill to master in order to understand concepts and ideas (Lata, 2024).

Education activists wanted the city to set up temporal mobile libraries in Johannesburg while it was busy with renovations of the library (Majavu, 2023). University of Johannesburg Professor, Prof. Mary Metcalfe said the library has a history of being important to students, particularly those who do distance learning, and its closure has a negative impact on them (Majavu, 2023). Prof Metcalfe also said students who do not have a safe and quiet place to learn were affected the most by the closure (Majavu, 2023).

Sheri Hamilton, a University of Johannesburg lecturer expressed sadness at the closure saying the library offers access to resources for opportunities for young people looking for employment or training (Majavu, 2023). Hamilton said a lot of township schools do not have libraries and learners use the Johannesburg City Library as it is central (Majavu, 2023). Similar sentiments were shared by Cameron McConnachie, the head of the Right to Read Campaign in the Legal Resource Centre, who cited the terrible literacy rate in South Africa and shortage of internet access, that most learners require to do their school work (Majavu, 2023). The Legal Resource Centre called on the city to find alternative ways of accommodate learners while renovations take place (Majavu, 2023).

The protest was joined by amongst others, Wits University Politics Professor, Prof. Achille Mbembe, who stated that the library is more than just a building as there is no democracy without books (Haffejee, 2024). He stated that citizens should demand political parties should commit to re-invest in expanding cultural public infrastructures (Haffejee, 2024). Other participants in the march calling for the re-opening of the library included Lebogang Mashile, Zakes Mda, Enver Surty and Dr Max Price, who pledged to donate some of their works to the library as soon as it reopened, for the public to enjoy (Lata, 2024). Among the speakers at the protest was author Professor Njabulo Ndebele, who quoted the Freedom Charter saying, “When freedom comes the doors of learning will open for all.” Ndebele emphasised that there is no democracy if people are denied access to information (Lata, 2024).

The campaign eventually led to the city and the JDA organising stakeholder forum meetings which included the JHF and the JCA (Simelane, 2024). This process allowed for the foundation to ask for the reports on the structural issues, repairs and the allocated budget (Simelane, 2024). The JHF criticised the estimated cost of over R100 million for the repairs, saying it was excessive particularly since the library had been renovated by a R68 million in 2012 (JHF, 2025). The 2012 renovations were funded largely by the Carnegie Corporation of New York (JHF, 2025). Through active democratic participation the Foundation used its architects and engineers to assess the damage and found no structural flaws and no ‘apparent occupational risk’ in the building (JHF, 2025). The assessment revealed that an essential fire-suppression system that was installed in 2012 was not commissioned and a leaking roof, despite the city having paid three different contractors to repair the building (JHF, 2025).

A city spokesperson, Nthathisi Madingoane responded to calls for the re-opening of the library by saying that although they understood that the library was important to everyone, however, “all statutory compliance matters pertaining to the Emergency Management Services by-laws and the National Building Regulations must be completed and certified as such before the building can be deemed safe for occupation and use” (Simelane, 2024, n.p.).

After several meetings of the stakeholder forum, the library was partially opened on Human Rights Day, 21 March 2025, while renovations were ongoing (Mabuza, 2025). The JHF and JCA said The library was finally fully opened to the public on 9 August 2025 (Mabuza, 2025). The JDA said it undertook significant refurbishment and modernisation works to preserve the library’s historic features while improving accessibility, safety, and functionality (JDA, 2025). The renovations included structural repairs and heritage restoration, upgrading of electrical; IT and security systems; installation of modern heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems; enhanced accessibility features for persons with disabilities; interior refurbishments to reading rooms, study spaces and archival storage areas (JDA, 2025).

Influence, Outcomes, and Effects

The successful library re-opening campaign demonstrated the power of effective participatory democracy. The civic organisations that worked jointly and tirelessly to ensure the city delivers on its commitment to refurbish and open the library during the course of the 2025 financial year strengthened democracy by showing the importance of civic organisations in voicing the concerns of citizens (Kariuki, 2025). In South Africa, civic organisations are responsible for ensuring there is a democratic environment the encourages governance, accountability and ethical leadership (Kariuki, 2025).

The re-opening of the city library strengthened the status and role played by civil society organisations in the city and nationally as residents of Johannesburg and donors will have trust them to deliver on other democratic pursuits. This campaign shows the importance of a cooperative working relationship between civil society and government. Gumede (2018) asserts that a vibrant civil society in South Africa creates a thriving democratic environment that closes the gap between government and communities.

The joint working relationship with all stakeholders provided legitimacy to the process. “By providing external stakeholders with a forum for genuine dialogue with the COJ and its agencies, we believe that we have reached a more sustainable and satisfactory result than if the city had gone it alone” (JHF, 2025). Additionally, the racial diversity of the voices who supported the campaign, represented the diverse demographics of Johannesburg.

Analysis and Lessons Learned

Looking at this campaign through the participatory democracy theoretical framework, it becomes clear that civil society, in most cases, have become the final line of defence ‘in fighting on behalf of ordinary citizens’ when government is failing to deliver services (Gumede, 2018). The media statements issued by the JHF and JCA allowed the media to put pressure on the city by exposing the impact of the closure of the library on ordinary citizens, learners and students. The public protest gave voice to learners, students, academics and authors who urged the city to re-open the library.

Visible lessons include that civil society must not tire when there is no response from government. The JHF persisted and organised more organisations when it was ignored by the city. Additionally, recruiting prominent academics and authors to lend their voices to the campaign increased the public pressure on government. This campaign shows that participatory democracy can deliver results and renew trust in a civil society that works for the good of society.

See Also

References

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Notes