The Buzzy Beez building stands on the Okkie Smuts Primary School grounds in Church Street (Erf 101). It is more than a hundred years old, and it is graded IIIA: of local importance, and significant enough to be placed on a heritage register.
Around 2014, the Heritage Committee learned that the Department of Education intended to demolish it and replace it with two face-brick classrooms. The building had fallen into such disrepair that it had been declared unsafe to occupy. Because it is older than 60 years and stands on a highly graded heritage site, Stanford Conservation stopped the demolition.
Saving the building
Liz Hochfelden, then chair of the Heritage Committee, played an instrumental role in persuading the Department of Education and the Department of Public Works to move the new classrooms to a more appropriate place. That saved both the building and the playground in front of it. The new classrooms were redesigned to follow the Stanford Style. Amelia de Villiers was the first person to raise the alarm.
The restoration
In return, the school's governing board undertook to restore the building, and Stanford Conservation pledged to raise funds for the most expensive part: replacing the thatch roof. The Roland and Leta Hill Trust supported the application, as it had earlier for St Thomas Church. After the necessary Department of Education and heritage approvals, work on the new roof began on 16 September 2019.
By then the building had already been repainted, and the restoration was entering its final stages. A grant from the Grootbos Foundation supported its use as the school library, which was intended to be ready for the 2020 school year. The restored building is now the Okkie Smuts school library.
Then & now
The 2019 thatching
Who was involved
- The Stanford Heritage Committee. Architect Gregg Goddard supervised the work, drew a measured plan and obtained the approvals, with a project report for the funding application prepared with archaeologist Katie Smuts and engineer Louis Roodt.
- Anton Duivestein, owner of Walker Bay Construction, volunteered his professional time and donated some of the materials.
- Stanford Builders (Pty) Ltd, a company he set up to employ and train people born and raised in Stanford, on a profit-sharing formula, did the roof's structural repairs, waterproofing, and the painting of the flashing and ridge.
- Elim Thatchers, a family-owned business with close ties to Stanford, did the thatching.
- The Okkie Smuts Primary School governing board, the Roland and Leta Hill Trust, and the Grootbos Foundation.
Interested in learning more about the Buzzy Beez restoration? Email the Heritage Committee.
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