Meet Eric Itzkin, The Man in the City of Johannesburg in Charge of Its Heritage and Public Art Installations

By Ml Luqman Skink, INX Prime News and Current Affairs Editor

The City of Johannesburg is South Africa’s richest and biggest Metropolitan Municipality. It is the biggest city in Gauteng, South Africa’s business hub. The Joburg skyline is the pride of Africa and one of the world’s most famous. It began life 138 years ago as a camping site for miners and prospectors involved in the Witwatersrand Gold Rush of 1886 that led to the establishment of Johannesburg.

In the years that followed, that camping site developed into the sprawling metropolis it is today that almost a third of South Africa’s population call home. For over a century, Johannesburg was the world’s largest producer of gold and it is no surprise that the Gauteng province is the most densely populated, yet South Africa’s smallest.

Because it is the economic engine of the country accounting for more than a third of the national GDP, today’s gold rush is for jobs and economic opportunities. In the last census of 2022, Stats SA counted 6,198,000 people who lived in the metropolitan area of Johannesburg. Most people who live in Johannesburg work in the city, with many deciding to stay on to raise families over multiple generations.

It is not surprising therefore that Johannesburg has been at the forefront of many a South African story; from the mining days, through apartheid and democracy, the city continues to play a major role in shaping the country’s history. The city is a treasure trove of public art installations in some of the most unexpected places, and it intrigued me when I stumbled upon a department within the City of Joburg that looks after its collective heritage.

City of Johannesburg Directorate of Arts Culture and Heritage

While doing research for this story, I stumbled upon the City of Johannesburg’s Directorate of Arts Culture and Heritage. The landing page has some text that explains its broad function:

"From downtown Newtown to the sprawling township of Soweto, from the leafy north to the western outskirts of Roodepoort, Joburg is the province’s cultural hub, with a host of galleries, theatres and museums. And it is the City’s directorate of arts, culture and heritage that ensures that all the communities of Joburg are provided with creative and cultural outlets."

I was intrigued because, as a long-time resident of the city, I have always been fascinated by its rich history. As a history nerd, I would spend hours visiting historic buildings in the Jeppestown area to get some idea of what Johannesburg was like in the early days. Several calls, e-mails, and WhatsApp texts later, I received a call from a gentleman from the directorate in charge of Heritage, Eric Itzkin, who agreed to speak to us on Prime Live about the role played by public art installations and to unpack the City’s Public Art policy.

Eric Itzkin: The Activist, Educator, and Walking Encyclopedia

Meeting Eric in person is one of the most fascinating experiences; within minutes, I recognized a kindred spirit in his unmistakable love for history. He is the kind of person who knows the City of Joburg like the back of his hand, and any conversation with him is enriched with little nuggets of history you otherwise did not know!

I was intrigued to learn how the Randjeslaagte Beacon in Parktown, just off Louis Botha Avenue, one of the busiest traffic arteries, marks the farm on which Johannesburg was laid out in 1886.

For a comprehensive guide to public art in Joburg, the Directorate of Arts, Culture and Heritage has published an online catalogue of public art. In this interview on Prime Live, Eric Itzkin takes Nazia Wadee on a trip down memory lane to discover the city’s rich heritage, and he explains how the rise in mural art is shaping discussions on what can be allowed in beautifying the city’s spaces.

Watch the full interview on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEqm-lzdX-k