The withdrawal of the City of Johannesburg’s Region E director Liziwe Ntshinga-Makoro from the proposed Alexandra beautification project has been described as an act of paving the way for the project to be handed back to the community of Alexandra.
This was outlined by the City’s spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane, who was reacting to the fears of the Alex Chapter of the NPO South Africa Day which had described her withdrawal as a severe blow to the project.
Modingoane said the understanding was that Ntshinga-Makoro’s office was merely a facilitator to help the project gain traction with the community and since this had been achieved, she felt that it was about time her office withdrew and allowed the people of Alexandra to own and run with the project.
According to Dr Bheki Shongwe, the CEO of the Sandton-based South Africa Day which is spearheading the We Love Alex Makeover Project, Ntshinga-Makoro was said to have indicated that she did not understand the purpose and way forward for the project.
Shongwe was speaking at a recent meeting of the Alex Chapter of SA Day which was held at the home of Linda Twala, one of the township’s foremost citizens, philanthropists, community leaders and struggle stalwarts. Twala is a patron of the project which aims to clean-up Alex and beautify its streets and parks.
“Those are reasons that I was furnished with for the decision to pull out of the project,” Shongwe told a meeting of the chapter which was attended by members of the committee charged with the implementation of the project.
“This is a severe blow for the project but we are going ahead with it. We are going to call a mass meeting of the community of Alexandra to bless the implementation of the project as it is for their own good,” said Muntu Mbanjwa, one of the committee members.
But Modingoane said Ntshinga-Makoro was not pulling out of the project but merely stepping back to give full control to the community of Alexandra. Her desire was that for the project to succeed, it needed to be owned and run by the community and hence her decision, Modingoane added.
He acknowledged the project as a noble aim of transforming and helping to rebuild the township through cleaning, beautification and embarking on other projects designed to uplift the community.
“It is our understanding that the initiative will also involve business and socio-economic development projects for Alexandra township, which would be spearheaded by the Strong Towns and Cities Network, a South Africa Day initiative. The success of the project is strongly dependent on the involvement and ownership by the community of Alexandra,” he said.
Ntshinga-Makoro was requested to help coordinate or facilitate the different stakeholders and support by departments and entities in the region to ensure the smooth implementation of the project.
After having been involved in initial discussions and introducing the programme to various departments, Modingoane said Ntshinga-Makoro then assigned one of her deputy directors to work closely with South Africa Day especially on understanding the township and its associated challenges towards developing the ideal projects to be implemented and their suitable location.
With the community fully involved and the project starting to take shape, Modingoane said Ntshinga-Makoro communicated to the chairperson that seeing that Region E Citizen Relationship and Urban Management had fulfilled its mandate (full support in the set-up of a committee and launch of the programme), it was time for City officials to take a step back and give the reigns to the community and SA Day to first confirm projects for implementation.
Modingoane said once that was confirmed, Ntshinga-Makoro would always be available to provide assistance and support.
