The outlook looks bleak for the Heart of Cape Town Museum, commemorating the first heart transplant 56 years ago by Dr Christiaan Barnard in the Old Main Building of Groote Schuur Hospital, where the original room and surgical equipment take visitors back in time to where the operation was performed.
The medical museum provides insight into the groundbreaking surgery performed in December 1967 by Barnard, as well as donor Denise Darvall (25) and the heart recipient, 53-year old Louis Washkansky.
The procedure, performed by a team of 30, lasted six hours. Washkansky died 18 days later from pneumonia.
The operating theatre was declared a national monument by the then National Monuments Council, but its future now hangs in the balance, reports IOL.
On 17 July, a letter from the Groote Schuur Hospital Facility Board (GSHFB) to museum curator Advocate Hennie Joubert stated that the Management Agreement was due to expire on 4 July 2025.
The area will then revert to the board on 5 July 2025.
Joubert started work on the museum in 2006 and it opened on 3 December 2007, also the 40th anniversary of the medical first.
A contract for 10 years was secured with a renewal of another 10 years for the space.
Silicone life-like figures depicting Barnard, with a number of others depicting the medical team, can be found inside the museum, as well as a smiling Washkansky post-surgery.
Joubert had purchased the copyrights for items, and many original items were donated.
“I would prefer to see that it is there forever, but the hospital is not interested. I don’t know why they want to stop the contract…,” Joubert said. “If I leave, that would be the end of the museum.”
Regarding finding another space for the collection, he said he hadn’t started looking yet, but had identified the Dr Chris Barnard Museum in Beaufort West as an option.
“But for the time being, I’m just going to put it in storage… I’m not going to leave it for Groote Schuur.”
The current monthly rental paid by the museum to the GSHFB is R9 635, and the total payment to the GSHFB, including utilities is R18 256.70.
“They wanted to stop the contract and take me to court, although there was an extension. I really don’t know exactly why they want me out of the museum. There must be a hidden agenda which I don’t know about,” Joubert said.
South African Heritage Resources Agency senior manager of Heritage Conservation Management Ben Mwasinga said all former national monuments became Provincial Heritage Sites after the promulgation of the National Heritage Resources Act in 1999.
“So for them to make any changes, they would still have to apply to the relevant heritage authority, in this instance, Heritage Western Cape, to get a permit to make those changes,” he said.
The provincial Health & Wellness Department said the board was still exploring its options regarding the space.
“But to preserve lessee relations, its policy is to provide at least 12 months’ notice so that the lessee can make alternative arrangements.
“The only agreement in place relates to the space rental and the financial obligations that accrue. Neither Groote Schuur Hospital nor its board has any other commercial interests in the museum.
“We understand that the museum is run entirely as a private venture, and all commercial interests are managed by the museum’s owners.
“A few of the exhibits are part of the University of Cape Town’s archives and have been entrusted to the museum’s care while it remains on the hospital premises. These would need to be returned on termination of the lease.”
Fate of Barnard’s heart museum at Groote Schuur in the balance (Open access)
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Six decades later, Chris Barnard’s patient returns for second heart surgery
Chris Barnard centenary birthday a reminder of SA’s current cardiovascular burden – Gray
How a historic heart transplant created SA’s first celebrity scientist 50 years ago