A Living Heritage:
A Beacon of Light
South African communities should be encouraged and enabled to nurture and conserve their legacy so that it may be bequeathed to future generations.
“Our heritage is unique and precious and it cannot be renewed. It helps us to define our cultural identity and therefore lies at the heart of our spiritual well-being and has the power to build our nation. It has the potential to affirm our diverse cultures, and in so doing shape our national character. Our heritage celebrates our achievements and contributes to redressing past inequalities. It educates, it deepens our understanding of society and encourages us to empathise with the experience of others. It facilitates healing and material and symbolic restitution and it promotes new previously neglected research into our rich oral traditions and customs.”
National Heritage Resources Act, 1999
The aim of the projects herein is to promote this sentiment through the concept of A Living Heritage.
The Living Heritage Association
The Living Heritage Association (‘LHA”) was established on the 12th June 2003, as an Association Incorporated under Section 21 and regulation 18 of the Companies Act.
The main objects of the Company are:
- To provide funds for community projects of a public nature within the Republic of South Africa.
- To provide, conduct, manage, maintain, control and superintend premises suitable for conducting community projects.
- To provide books, documents, materials and other facilities that may be necessary or desirable for community projects.
The main business of the ‘LHA’ is that of promoting and advancing cultural, spiritual, physical and mental well-being to all persons and in connection therewith to establish and conduct in any part of South Africa a centre/s to give instruction and guidance in all of the above.
The School of Practical Philosophy
The ‘LHA’ was formed as an initiative of the School of Practical Philosophy (‘SPP’) to provide good governance for the many projects under its umbrella. The workforce and manpower comes from the ‘SPP’ on a purely voluntary basis.
The ‘SPP’ was established in 1937 in the U.K. and subsequently in South Africa in 1958. It is a non-profit organization; tutors are all students of the School, and no one is remunerated. The fees charged are purely to cover the maintenance and running cost of the School.
The essence of the teaching offered by the ‘SPP’ is unity. This is found through love and reason applied in the service of creation and mankind with and for the community at large.
St Mary’s building; a National Heritage Site situated in Jeppestown is the home both of the ‘SPP’ in Gauteng and St James Preparatory. The current membership is over 340, the period of membership ranges from 4 to 40 years. There are some 36 associated schools worldwide.
St James Preparatory School Bursary Fund
St James Preparatory School, which shares St Mary’s building with the ‘SPP’, is an independent school, constituted as a non-profit organization in terms of Section 21 of the South African Companies Act. The School is registered with the Gauteng Department of Education, and is a member of the Independent Schools Association of Southern Africa. All teachers are active members of the ‘SPP’. St James Preparatory School in Belgravia opened its doors in 1999. It is the youngest of a family of schools opened around the world during the last 25 years, embodying principles of education, which were developed from the study of practical philosophy within the ‘SPP’.
The children are presented with the best material (embracing literature, scripture, philosophy, music and art), and introduced to lofty principles: truthfulness, magnanimity, selflessness, courage and fearlessness. Through love and discipline, respect for authority is inculcated and an understanding is gained of the relationship between duties and rights. It is hoped that this will serve to realise the School’s founding vision, which is ‘to produce young people of strong character who are self-reliant, self-disciplined, upright, and able to fulfil whatever they undertake’.
As regards racial representation, 83% of the School’s pupils are from previously disadvantaged communities and 17% are from the white community.
The only criterion for enrolling a child in the school is that the system of education offered is what the parents wish for their child. All races, faiths, religions, intellectual capability, creed and financial circumstances are admitted, including the poor of the surrounding community of Jeppestown and eventually to Soweto where the ‘SPP’ is already involved in an outreach project embracing ten schools.
A Bursary Fund has been established and we are now seeking support from private, local and overseas donors to make the education more widely available to the more disadvantaged communities. The objective of the current project is to facilitate the granting of more bursaries by (a) increasing the capital of the Bursary Fund to allow for more bursaries to be funded out of the interest income, and/or (b) securing additional ‘adopt-a-bursary’ funding on an annual basis.
Approximately one quarter of the pupils (30 out of a total of 140) are presently on bursaries, which range between 10% and 60% of their fees.
Salisbury House Restoration Fund
Built in 1903 Salisbury House is a National Heritage site in Jeppestown opposite St Mary’s building, and has been leased to the ‘SPP’ by the City Council of Johannesburg. It is our intention to restore the building to its forming glory according to the recommendations from the South African Heritage Resources Agency and in consultation with the Egoli Heritage Foundation (previously Simon van der Stel Foundation). A conservation policy was approved on the 19.06.2003. The St Mary’s building, is currently the home of both the ‘SPP’ and St James, it is an example of the restoration efforts within the area.
Jeppe Oval Project
The Jeppe Oval is a heritage site situated in the inner city of Johannesburg. The area is steeped in the history of Johannesburg, being one of the first townships declared as such in 1893. It encapsulates the Victorian era as it was reflected in early Johannesburg, with many structures from that time being neglected and very run down.
The ‘SPP’ is situated within this area and the students thereof have, for the last five years, been involved with a community project, Jeppe Phakamisa Ubuntu (JPU). The Jeppe Oval Project is part of this community project and the intention of JPU is to eventually form a centre of excellence.
The Jeppe Oval is situated on major arterial routes from Johannesburg. There are 10 schools within a 5km radius of the Oval, providing a good indication of the potential for the projects outlined below to reach large numbers of community members. By accessing these members, we have a golden opportunity to establish an urban regeneration programme within a low income community.
Indeed, this is the first time a project aimed at halting urban decay is taking into account, not only the safety and educational aspects of a community, but also the cultural, historical and finer recreational needs and development. Ultimately, the project aims to achieve:
- The promotion and celebration of the cultural mix in Jeppe that give it its vibrant character.
- Improvement of existing sporting, cultural and recreational facilities.
- The provision of educational experiences that most people in the area would not normally be exposed to – using the rich infrastructural heritage available to the Jeppestown community.
- Attracting new businesses, small retailers and light manufacturers into the area; thereby creating employment opportunities, and thus the resources for inhabitants to uplift their living conditions.
- Attract professional artists into the area, in the fields of music, theatre, dance, crafts, fine arts, etc.
- The creation of an environment of integrated support between business, community members and the educational and recreational providers.
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