![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Read-770x504.jpg\")
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Literacy activist and author, Sam Mathe, says it’s concerning that black children continue to struggle to access quality learning material, 30 years into democracy.<\/p>\n
His cries come as Johannesburg inner-city residents say they remain in the dark, about when their prized library will re-open.<\/p>\n
Members of the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation will take to the streets on Saturday, demanding the re-opening of the Joburg City Library, which was closed four years ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
The impressive book and art collection is located in the heart of Johannesburg and houses more than 1.5 million books, as well as art and newspaper archive collections.<\/p>\n
It’s also home to more than 140 computer workstations and free Wi-Fi.<\/p>\n
Mathe says education has suffered, particularly for those children who used to come to library to do their homework or access valuable information.<\/p>\n
“This is a basic service that is no longer accessible to them. This effects literacy levels and more importantly their results at the end of the school year, ” he told YNews.<\/p>\n
The library closed its doors indefinitely in March 2021 after a preliminary report found it had major structural problems, including a leaking roof.<\/p>\n
Speaking to YNews, Mathe criticised out-of-touch authorities for doing little to ensure that the library remains accessible.<\/p>\n
“We feel the deprivation. This is a serious situation that we’re in, but it doesn’t look like the city authorities care, it’s like we have to accept it as a norm.” Written by Naomi Kobbie<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Literacy activist and author, Sam Mathe, says it’s concerning that black children continue to struggle to access quality learning material, 30 years into democracy. His cries come as Johannesburg inner-city residents say they remain in the dark, about when their prized library will re-open. Members of the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation ...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":20994,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Read.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20993"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20997,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20993\/revisions\/20997"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}