What better way to spend a public holiday than rounding up the family and visiting the museum to learn more about the history of the day?
But, what should have been a fun day for a family from Roodepoort ended in huge disappointment.
On 19 March, a press release was sent from the office of the Member of the Mayoral Committee for Community Development, stating that all the museums in the City of Johannesburg would be open on Human Right’s Day – free of charge. The museums were advertised as being open from 10am to 5pm on the day, and Roodepoort Museum was also mentioned on the list of participating museums.
You might also be interested in: Relive history with the Roodepoort Museum
The Nel family was very excited about this news and couldn’t wait to take up the offer. They decided to spend their day at the Roodepoort Museum as it is the closest one to them.
Great was their disappointment when they found the museum closed. According to the Nels there was a sign on the door stating that the museum is only open by appointment, but when they phoned there was no answer.
When the Record contacted the museum for comment, Khangela Hlongwane, the Unit Head for Museums and Galleries, extended his apologies to the family. “I take full responsibility for the incident that happened on 21 March at the Roodepoort Museum. Email communication was sent out to all museums informing them of the arrangements for Heritage Day. The personnel at Roodepoort seem to have missed the correspondence and I will be following up on this to ensure we don’t have a repeat of this in future,” he said.
The staff at the Roodepoort Museum also offered their apologies for the inconvenience caused by this unfortunate incident.
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