Iconic Down Town Music Hub being stolen in plain daylight, piece by piece

The building was abandoned by staff when the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture halted funding last year, citing dysfunction of the board and lack of accountability.

By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor

That part of town is notorious for the activities of building hijackers who take over, abandoned and neglected buildings and turn them into slum accommodation for the desperate. These are often poor people looking for affordable accommodation close to where they work, and Johannesburg CBD offers them that convenience.

Problem is the act of hijacking buildings is illegal. Such buildings often have no municipal services, such as water, electricity and garbage removal. Rotting garbage piles up on walkways, passages and in front of the buildings. Its pageant smells is felt hundreds of metres away. Worse, the desperate are charged a lot of money to fill the hijackers’ pockets as these buildings abandoned by their owners offer a business opportunity to these building hijacking cartels.

In short that is the sad story of Johannesburg today. However, there is another even sadder story of Johannesburg, which is slowly developing in plain sight of authorities.

In fact the building hijackers must be watching this story closely. Rubbing their fingers with glee as they wait for that opportunity to strike. Move in and take control of this building. If that happened, the blame would be correctly squarely laid on the shoulders of authorities.

This is because after stopping funding for whatever reason, government should have put in place, corruption proof strategy for the future of this iconic cultural space in the country. Or at the very least put security measures in place while contemplation about the future of this national property is taking place, instead of leaving it to its own devices.

I remember well when in 2008, the media was invited to the announcement of the acquisition of the then Down Town Studios by the Department of Arts and Culture, by then Minister of Arts and Culture Pallo Jordan. The media that was there we all felt that this was the right thing to do, as buying these studios from Gallo Records by government, was going to make access to top recording studios easier for musicians, especially emerging independent musicians who struggled with booking commercial recording studios to record their music. And also the Down Town Studios has some much history and value that being owned by government for the use of especially emerging musicians made perfect sense.

However last year, Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC, Gayton McKenzie, announced that DSAC was stopping funding for Down Town Music Hub, a government entity which houses recording studios for musicians at an affordable rate. It also has rehearsal space. McKenzie cited the dysfunction in the board appointed to have an oversight of the place, as well as management issues that rendered the place no longer worth government funding. While the building itself was bought by DSAC, it was soon handed over to the National Arts Council to look after it, while DSAC paid for its operations. That appeared to be a perfect solution. That is until problems set in, especially where greed took over among board members and funds started disappearing with trace, as seemingly the Performance Finance Management Act (PFMA) became a stranger among board members and management. Rot set in as the finance book was thrown away and forgotten.

However, after the government stopped funding the entity, the Down Town Music Hub building stood neglected, security has been withdrawn and staff have left their offices as there was no longer money to pay their salaries.

This, has opened an opportunity for the building hijacking cartels to move in and take over the building. Fortunately, that has not happened yet, but is bound to happen unless something is done. Done now.

And quite instructively when the announcement was made that government was withdrawing funding to this entity, many feared that neglect for the building would open opportunities for unsavoury characters of the city to come and do what they always do under such circumstances –hijacking the building and repurpose it as a slum land.

Already the rot has begun at 62 Goud Street in downtown Johannesburg. This week on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, shocking images of the Down Town Music Hub being stolen piece by piece by criminals emerged on social media, triggering an outcry in the creative sector. These pictures show a disturbing picture of an iconic cultural institution in the country, owned by government, being stripped piece by piece in plain sight. Electrical wiring is left exposed as part of the cables have been cut, stolen and certainly heading to one of the scrap yards dotting the city where they will be sold for cash. This risk exposure of the building, followed an alleged break in over the weekend by crooks. This has left the creative sector livid, as this place is quite iconic, a place where some of the legendary musicians first recorded, dating many years back. Legendary musicians such as the late Lucky Dube and Mahotella Queens, to name just a few, first recorded at the place, then called Down Town Studios.

Therefore there is no wonder why this latest development has caught the eye of vigilant activists in the sector who are asking for government to intervene and save the deteriorating situation regarding the state of Down Town Music Hub.

“I have just received these disturbing photos of Downtown studios. Apparently there was a break in this past weekend at the hub.

The CEO is unreachable. The chairperson of the board is unreachable.

Efforts to communicate with Min Gayton Mckenzie have been futile.

Downtown Studios is one of the most important institutions in the recording industry history of South Africa. Some of the biggest hits were recorded there.

The first time I went to DS was to meet other musicians on our way to Swaziland – a long time ago. That used to be the transport pick up spot for all musicians traveling from Joburg.

Thereafter, I would go for rehearsals. I think that was the first place I met Brenda Fasie.

You could go there just to spot the biggest names in the industry.

Today, this important institution has been neglected and used as a political tool.

It’s sad that the current government doesn’t see value in our heritage.

The National Arts Council of South Africa (NAC) was said to be the stewards of this building. What went wrong?

Department of Sport, Arts and Culture this is part of our culture and heritage. Please do something. Tomorrow the building will be hijacked and the minister will be talking about “Mabahambe”. And yet, under his own watch here is building that should be protected and declared a national heritage site is being vandalized,” lamented soprano Sibongile Mngoma on Facebook.

CITYLIFE/ARTS approached both the Minister’s Spokesperson Stacey Kujane and DSAC spokesperson Zimasa Velaphi for comment. At the time of publication, we had not received a response from both.