Iziko South African Museum — Attraction in Cape Town Ward 115

Planetarium was amazing, museum experience was very much a let down for me, there’s always sections off limits due to reasons like lights not working, or renovations, my time here was cut short, because at 15:40 we were being asked to leave and lights were put off on exhibits and then at 15:58, the museum was announced to be closed, and they asked everybody to leave - I’m not sure why it says they close at 5, but kick everybody out before 4. I’ve enjoyed the museum since my childhood days, but it’s sad to see it decay, the toilets are absolutely disgusting. I also noticed that the Google maps thing says R60 pp, yet I was charged R100 pp

UPDATE: Don’t go during holiday times, they stack up the prices, any other time is R60. They have updated some sections since my last visit and it looks better. The toilets are still disgusting, it stinks and usually has a stall or urinal that is closed off - It’s like they don’t have people to clean the place. Planetarium staff was great, but it’s like the planetarium and the museum are 2 different places, because the museum is a mixed experience - I can’t stress how much I love this place, but it’s like the people who work there and own the place don’t...

What a sad, dishevelled disappointment. Not worth the visit anymore.

This museum has not seen a single cleanup, touchup or revamp since it was renamed.

Dead flies litter the exhibition cases. The dinosour skeletons have not been dusted in ten years. Their display base has become dilapidated and broken.

Peeling posters. Faded paint. Cracked and broken tiles and plaster. The carpeting has been worn threadbare. The fire prevention sprinklers have seperated from the ceiling and most of the lights are dead.

A dank, dingy and shameful display of our country's proud heritage. Typical of the modern South African way of doing.

And why are the Koi San artefacts displayed in a natural history museum along with animal and fish exhibits? Are the Koi San not human?

This is another of those government institutions that has just become a milking cows for the current Banana Republic regime.

Avoid this and the slave lodge and the entire garden section in between. It is a rip-off. More so if you are a non south African and pay premium entry fees.

If you do have to go, keep your eyes open and your hand on your wallet. This has become a shady...

Bertram House 23/05/2024 - Not listed on Google Maps, the telephone does not get answered and using Contact Us on the website got no reply. The entrance hall floor was filthy and the garden (right next to the beautifully maintained Company Gardens) looks terrible. Wallpaper is peeling in places and dark paint is chipped, showing the primer below. More than half of the items listed on the website were nowhere to be seen, as only 4 of the rooms are exhibited as stated. The rest of the rooms were filled with posters containing anti-Colonial rantings (racism should be addressed in those monuments appropriate times the subject, eg the District Six museum, and the colonial past cannot disappear, it happened). I go to house museums to see beautiful furniture and crockery, to see how life was in that time, not as an act of worship of anything currently considered inappropriate. Cape Town is supposed to be a top tourist destination - my personal opinion is that all "monuments to Colonialism " are being neglected and not showcased, so that they can be closed down, using lack of public interest...