---
title: "Joburg breathes new life into the history on its streets"
description: "A jazz legend whose shoe is regularly kept polished by a mysterious admirer, giant steel pigeons honouring Johannesburg’s Asian community and the story of Pickhandle Mary are among the pieces of Joburg’s history being brought back to life on its streets."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "CITY ART"
author: "Anna Cox"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/anna-cox/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-09-22-joburg-breathes-new-life-into-the-history-on-its-streets/"
published: "2026-09-22T21:18:25"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 1687
---

# Joburg breathes new life into the history on its streets

> A jazz legend whose shoe is regularly kept polished by a mysterious admirer, giant steel pigeons honouring Johannesburg’s Asian community and the story of Pickhandle Mary are among the pieces of Joburg’s history being brought back to life on its streets.

By Anna Cox · Published 22 September 2026, 23:18 SAST

## Key points
- Joburg is restoring the public artworks, plaques and storyboards that preserve the city’s layered history.
- Four major works have been renewed, including tributes to Margaret Singana and Kippie Moeketsi — whose shoe is still polished by a mystery admirer.
- New signage brings stories of ‘Pickhandle Mary’ Fitzgerald, Gandhi’s pass-burning protest, First Chinatown and Johannesburg’s Asian communities to life.
- With more than 230 heritage plaques across the city, officials say public art can help drive urban renewal, tourism and a stronger sense of ownership.

## Content

Across a city better known these days for crumbling infrastructure, Joburg has been restoring another kind of infrastructure — the artworks, monuments, plaques and storyboards that tell the tales of the people who built, challenged and changed the city.

Four prominent public artworks have recently been restored by the Johannesburg Development Agency, 15 blue heritage plaques have been replaced or refurbished, and new historical storyboards and signage are being installed.

Joburg has several hundred public artworks, including murals, mosaics, sculptures, monuments, memorials and street art, according to the City.

Its blue heritage plaque programme alone has grown to more than 230 markers spread across the city over the past 20 years.

Eric Itzkin, who retired in August 2026 as the City’s Head of Heritage, said the latest work was not a once-off rescue operation, but part of a longstanding programme of the Directorate: Arts, Culture and Heritage, for maintaining and enhancing the city’s public heritage.

“It’s kind of a long-term programme. Year by year we repair, refurbish and upgrade artworks, and that’s been going for the last several years really,” he said.

The focus changes each year.

Previous work included restoration in the Vilakazi Street precinct and a major revamp of the courtyard exhibition at the Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum.

There, the names of victims of the June 16 uprising had previously been displayed on small panels on the ground where people could walk over them.

“It really didn’t have much dignity or visual kind of power to it,” Itzkin said.

They were replaced with impressive upright granite panels bearing the names of 593 victims of the June 16 1976 Student Uprising.

[PRESERVING HERITAGE

Meet the 31-year-old Sowetan behind Joburg’s first digital heritage register

August 4, 2025 ![Image](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/JbBNiPnJparmgXJmOTGwmxvuwvg=/450x0/smart/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/IMG-20250718-WA0019.jpg)](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-08-04-meet-the-31-year-old-sowetan-who-compiled-joburgs-first-digital-heritage-register/)

This year’s work has concentrated particularly on the Newtown Cultural Precinct and surrounding historic areas.

The Repairs and Enhancement of Public Art Programme was commissioned by the City’s Directorate of Arts, Culture and Heritage and implemented by the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA).

Work on the ground was led by specialist team Sticky Situations, in consultation with the original artists.

The four principal artworks were the Kippie Moeketsi sculpture, the Margaret Mcingana tribute artwork, the Mahatma Gandhi Pass-Burning Monument and Paper Pigeons.

### A new Margaret

For Itzkin, one of the outstanding interventions is artist Dbongz’s new portrait of singer Margaret Mcingana, better known as Margaret Singana.

The previous canvas had become worn and torn, and Dbongz, who created the original, was asked to renew it.

![Dbongz Margaret Mcingana](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/BJpUJf8DZxUuT8U9QLR7-EWg69g=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/Anna-art-Joburg2_781650.jpg)

*Dbongz with Portrait of Margaret Mcingana. (Photo: Eric Itzkin)*

Instead of simply reproducing the previous image, he created a new interpretation of the singer.

“We gave him the licence to do anything, and I think he’s excelled himself,” Itzkin said.

The enormous portrait is not a conventional mural painted directly on to a wall, but a canvas mounted on the side of Nikki’s Oasis Jazz Restaurant.

It forms part of a broader collection of large-scale portraits of cultural figures by Dbongz in the Newtown Cultural Precinct and Maboneng.

![dbongz mural maboneng](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/59v39IBlRMhl6HzTH8tGlcGM6UY=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/2994/08DBongzmural_838016.jpg)

*A Dbongz mural in Maboneng. (Photo: Bridget Hilton-Barber)*

### Kippie’s controversial inscription

Nearby, the bronze sculpture of jazz great Kippie Moeketsi has been cleaned and repatinated.

But the intervention involved more than conserving the bronze.

A panel associated with the sculpture described “Moralong” as Moeketsi’s nickname.

Jazz writer and researcher Gwen Ansell challenged the description, arguing that it was his Tswana clan name rather than a nickname.

Itzkin stressed that not everyone agreed with that interpretation, including within Moeketsi’s family.

The new inscription instead gives key information about Moeketsi and the artwork.

A QR code has also been installed on a nearby information panel, taking visitors to an extensive profile of Moeketsi and his life.

![Kippie Moeketsi statue](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/CEnGp1oOVh1nqURijDkPM7s43bo=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/WhatsAppImage2026-09-22at1636211_159696.jpeg)

*The bronze sculpture of jazz great Kippie Moeketsi in Newtown has been cleaned and repatinated. (Photo: Cleo Sithole)*

![Shoe Kippie Moeketsi](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/1D7BprYa4trJSADM_J31Jsd_TrE=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/WhatsAppImage2026-09-22at163622_607520.jpeg)

*One of the statue’s shoes remained polished, apparently kept that way by an unidentified admirer. (Photo: Cleo Sithole)*

The sculpture stands near the famous Brenda Fassie statue outside the Market Theatre.

The two works share an unusual quality. Brenda sits beside an empty stool and microphone, inviting people into the work, while Kippie has an empty chair beside him.

And, over the years, somebody formed a particularly personal relationship with the Kippie sculpture. As exposure to the elements darkened the bronze, one of his shoes remains polished, apparently kept that way by an unidentified admirer, said Itzkin.

The latest conservation work has restored the sculpture as a whole.

### Pickhandle Mary

A short distance away, the City has also turned its attention to Mary Fitzgerald Square, which was officially named as early as 1939 after the labour activist, South Africa’s first woman trade unionist.

Itzkin said Fitzgerald’s place in Johannesburg’s history was particularly significant at a time when the city’s streets and public places were overwhelmingly named after men.

![Mary Fitzgerald Square](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/a-vHpdml4wMH4-nzwdrflksIC94=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/Anna-art-Joburg1_248137.jpg)

*Storyboards at Mary Fitzgerald Square. (Photo: Eric Itzkin)*

The blue heritage plaque on the square, originally installed in 2005, has been replaced, and eye-catching new storyboards have been mounted telling the history of the square and workers’ struggles associated with it.

They include the 1946 black mineworkers’ strike and the story of Fitzgerald, the militant labour activist who became known as “Pickhandle Mary”.

A steel cut-out depicts Fitzgerald in her bonnet holding a pickhandle.

### Gandhi and Johannesburg’s first Chinatown

The conservation work has extended westwards into other historically significant parts of the inner city.

The Mahatma Gandhi Pass-Burning Monument commemorates the events of August 16, 1908, when Gandhi led more than 3,000 people to the Hamidia Mosque, where registration certificates were burnt in protest against discriminatory legislation.

Created by artist Usha Seejarim, the sculpture incorporates a large cast-iron potjie inspired by the cauldrons used during the protest.

Inside is a zoetrope. When the sculpture is spun, viewers can see an animated image of a registration certificate through slits in the cast iron.

![Paper Pigeons sculpture](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/nlmfxCoyeW9ddzEvkn2EVzjQDlk=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/JDApublicart44Jul2026_457931.jpg)

*The restored Paper Pigeons sculpture by Gerhard Marx and Maja Marx. (Photo: Supplied/City of Johannesburg)*

Nearby in Ferreirasdorp, new storyboards and heritage signage are being installed to mark and explain Johannesburg’s historic First Chinatown.

Itzkin said the Chinese settlement there dated to about 1893 and had already developed into a sizeable community by then.

The restored Paper Pigeons sculpture by Gerhard Marx and Maja Marx is closely connected to that history.

Installed at Pigeon Square in Ferreirasdorp in 2009, it consists of three giant, roughly three-metre-high origami-inspired steel pigeons.

The work pays tribute to Johannesburg’s Chinese and broader Asian communities and was deliberately designed so that real pigeons could perch on and around their giant steel counterparts and become part of the installation.

### When the plaque becomes the memory

Beyond the four major artworks, another part of the programme involves Johannesburg’s blue heritage plaques.

Fifteen were replaced or refurbished in the latest round, Itzkin said, while new plaques continue to be installed through a separate but related programme.

One marks the site of Red Square, part of which is now incorporated into the Oriental Plaza precinct.

The square was an important gathering place for political meetings and protest, including during the apartheid era, and was associated with the launch of the 1952 Defiance Campaign.

![Fordsburg Square plaque](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/CKZd3E5LspgImUrle6vYL8-0I94=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/Anna-art-Joburg11_223504.jpg)

*Refurbished Plaque at Fordsburg Square. (Photo: Eric Itzkin)*

Another plaque tells the story of the Battle of Fordsburg Square during the 1922 strike.

Remarkably, a surviving building from that period is the public toilet block on the square.

Itzkin recalled that the building had once remained visibly scarred by bullets from the fighting. Then somebody repaired it.

“Some city official wanting to do good just covered over the bullet holes,” he said. “But the plaque is the memory.”

The City’s blue heritage plaque collection now numbers more than 230, accumulated over about two decades and spread widely across Johannesburg, including Alexandra, Soweto and the historic suburbs.

The City is also preparing an online catalogue of the plaques.

### The battle against time — and vandalism

While vandalism is an obvious danger to artworks left permanently in public spaces, Itzkin said it should not be assumed that Johannesburg’s public art was constantly being destroyed.

“It’s sometimes a problem. It’s not a problem always and everywhere,” he said.

Where possible, the City tries to place vulnerable works in safer environments.

The Brenda Fassie statue, for example, was moved to the Market Theatre precinct as a preventive measure, where there is round-the-clock security and a busy public environment.

Itzkin said community involvement was also important.

Residents needed to be consulted and encouraged to develop a sense of ownership of public artworks.

But vandalism was not the main reason for the latest repairs.

Many of the works had simply suffered the inevitable wear and tear of years outdoors, while some plaques had deteriorated through prolonged exposure to the elements.

“A lot of people value the artworks and they’re mostly in a stable condition, but it’s a large collection and the public environment will take its toll,” Itzkin said.

### Why spend money on art?

The private sector has also contributed to Johannesburg’s public-art landscape.

Itzkin cited the Watershed Mosaic Fountain near the Joburg Theatre, by artist Dionne McDonald and commissioned by the Braamfontein Improvement District, as one example.

He estimated that the City itself had developed about 200 individual public art pieces over the past two decades, in addition to works initiated by independent artists and the private sector.

For Itzkin, that investment still matters in a Johannesburg struggling with much more fundamental problems.

[FOR CONTEXT

In Joburg, art is made with urgency, worlds collide and status can shift

June 25, 2026 ![Image](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/g27-4PtJiG-quATOebo3P0TQSyQ=/450x0/smart/file/attachments/orphans/Latitudes20251_226352.jpg)](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-06-25-in-joburg-art-is-made-with-urgency-worlds-collide-and-status-can-shift/)

Asked why money should be spent on public art when the city is battling deteriorating infrastructure and other crises, he said artworks could themselves contribute to urban recovery.

“A lot of these public artworks can inspire us to do better,” he said.

Public art, he argued, could contribute to economic regeneration, creative opportunities, tourism and the quality and safety of public spaces.

“I think public art can help bring a heart to the city. It is a positive force for urban upliftment.”

Preserving the city’s public art did not necessarily require extravagant expenditure.

“Great art doesn’t always need to be hugely expensive,” said Itzkin. **DM**