A prominent Grahamstown property developer has assured outraged heritage groups he will restore a historic local home that was badly damaged during building site excavations.
Rob Beer described the collapse of a large section of wall as well as walls cracking at Lisagelly House last week as a “very unfortunate incident” which he said occurred during excavations to provide the Makana Municipality with samples needed for a geotechnical study of the water table metres underground at the site.
He said an excavator dug a long trench plus other excavations near the house in order to come up with the required geotechnical information.
Police spokesperson Captain Mali Govender confirmed they were investigating charges including “damaging, defacing, excavating and altering of a provisionally protected place”.
She said a docket would be sent to the senior public prosecutor for a decision on whether to prosecute when the investigation was completed.
All work has been stopped on the site and a team has been ordered to fully restore the building, which is in African Street and is part of a supermarket development.
Africa Fishile, who is the facilitator of the provincial heritage committee which issues permits authorising work on or near heritage sites, questioned why a two-metre long, two-metre deep trench had been dug along one side of the building to take samples while smaller holes had been dug elsewhere.
She said an order to cease construction was issued after they heard of the collapse.
“We told them to stop and please submit an engineer’s report on the building’s status and remedial work that must be done to save the building.”
She said all other work would have to stop on the site until the building was safe and restored and engineers would have to submit reports after completion of the restoration to the permit committee for review.
“They cannot knock it down. It has to be restored.”
The double-storey Lisagelly House was built in the 1860s and was a British army officers’ mess before being converted into a guest house — davidm@dispatch.co.za
Excavation at historic home damages wall
Rob Beer described the collapse of a large section of wall as well as walls cracking at Lisagelly House last week as a “very unfortunate incident” which he said occurred during excavations to provide the Makana Municipality with samples needed for a geotechnical study of the water table metres underground at the site.
He said an excavator dug a long trench plus other excavations near the house in order to come up with the required geotechnical information.
Police spokesperson Captain Mali Govender confirmed they were investigating charges including “damaging, defacing, excavating and altering of a provisionally protected place”.
She said a docket would be sent to the senior public prosecutor for a decision on whether to prosecute when the investigation was completed.
All work has been stopped on the site and a team has been ordered to fully restore the building, which is in African Street and is part of a supermarket development.
Africa Fishile, who is the facilitator of the provincial heritage committee which issues permits authorising work on or near heritage sites, questioned why a two-metre long, two-metre deep trench had been dug along one side of the building to take samples while smaller holes had been dug elsewhere.
She said an order to cease construction was issued after they heard of the collapse.
“We told them to stop and please submit an engineer’s report on the building’s status and remedial work that must be done to save the building.”
She said all other work would have to stop on the site until the building was safe and restored and engineers would have to submit reports after completion of the restoration to the permit committee for review.
“They cannot knock it down. It has to be restored.”
The double-storey Lisagelly House was built in the 1860s and was a British army officers’ mess before being converted into a guest house — davidm@dispatch.co.za
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