March 19, 2004
By Lucky Sindane
JOHANNESBURG mayor, Amos Masondo, stopped at an unusual venue during his road show through Soweto on Thursday - a brick-making cooperative run by a group of visually impaired workers.
The project, situated in the Nomzamo informal settlement in Orlando East, employs 40 brick-makers and helps support more than 450 families.
Set up in 1989 when blind residents in the informal settlement decided they were tired of being given Braille articles to read and wanted to do something with their hands, the brick-making project initially started with 18 people, but this has now grown to 40 full-time brick-makers.
On Thursday chairperson of the project, Titus Maleka, presented a letter to the mayor requesting help from the City of Johannesburg. "You will see blind people around town asking for money but it's not like that here. We do things for ourselves," Maleka said.
"However," he told Masondo, "we do feel isolated, because for the past 16 years we have not been included in the development plans of the City of Johannesburg. We need to be told where we belong and we really need your support. A blind person is as complete as you are."
Maleka added that often people were afraid of speaking their minds to the mayor. "But I'm not, because I'm talking to Bra Amos, not the mayor."
"If you could offer tenders for bricks, I think we can alleviate poverty," said the project's public relations officer, Colbert Sobopha.
The mayor was then told how the bricks are made - from ash obtained from the Rand Water Board, Kliprivier and from the Diepkloof prison.
"When we first started we were only making about 300 to 500 blocks a day," said Ruth Machobane, the director of the National Organisation of the Blind in South Africa. "Now we make between 1 000 and 1 500 blocks every day." Through its sales, the project earns about R42 000 a month.
A hardware store helped the project get going by buying the bricks and from their profits the brick-making project bought a truck for deliveries. But the truck is now giving problems and "keeps breaking down". "We are badly in need of a truck," said Machobane.
The mayor promised to look at the letter from the brick-makers committee and return with a response. "We promise that we will help you," Masondo said, before setting off to the next venue.
Earlier in the day, the mayor and his team of City officials addressed business leaders from Region 10 - Soweto - where they highlighted some of the facts and figures that had an impact on the economy of greater Johannesburg.
"One should first understand the history of Soweto before trying to understand the economy," said Lael Bethlehem from the City's economic and development unit.
According to Bethlehem an estimated 43 percent of Johannesburg's population live in Soweto, yet 80 percent of the salaries of people who live in Soweto are spent outside of the township. "This is because of the lack of facilities," Bethlehem added.
However, things were changing, the mayor assured the business community. "We are going to keep an eye on every development project that will benefit the community and help in whatever way we can. We are committed to building a better quality of life for our community, but we need the partnership and support of the people," said Masondo.
"By not later than 2005 December all the roads in Soweto will be tarred," he added.
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