About three years ago – three months before the 2016 local government elections – then Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Danny Jordaan announced to a room full of journalists at City Hall that a deal had finally been struck between the municipality and Red Location residents, and the multimillion-rand museum would finally reopen its doors.

As a gesture of goodwill, a community leader handed over the keys of the museum to the municipality. Everyone was happy because, finally, the prized precinct would be open to the city to repair some of the rooms that had been vandalised and it would then be opened to the public...