November 11, 2004
By Sheree Russouw
A DECADE ago Ivory Park was a scar on Johannesburg's landscape. But now residents of this bustling informal settlement are pioneering an "eco-friendly" village that cities across the country are trying to emulate.
Ivory Park is like many other informal settlements in South Africa - desperately poor. Flimsy shacks are crammed alongside each other in a tight race for space. Although it's the middle of the day, it seems as if hundreds of people are lounging around the township's streets. Some sell mielies roasted in coal umbhawulas to locals, while others play soccer to pass the time.
But, tucked behind a street punctuated with potholes, is the result of a brave experiment by a Johannesburg NGO and local residents. To an outsider, the Ivory Park urban eco-village, east of Midrand, would probably seem out of place in this battered landscape.
It's a colourful community, where buildings are painted with murals depicting life in Ivory Park, and expansive food gardens stretch into the distance. Here, you can have your pick of bicycles to save money on transport or recycle your waste. There is also the dream of building an eco-bank somewhere down the line, with simple saving schemes to help people set up their own small businesses.
The NGO's vision to transform just over two hectares of Ivory Park into a self-sustaining village started as a bold - and risky - experiment in 1999. Looking at the eco-village, it is clear it is a far cry from its former life as a dumping ground a mere few years ago.
Project founder, Annie Sugrue, is determined to prove that Ivory Park has not been written off as just another urban wasteland. "For too long this area has been forgotten on the edge of the city," says Sugrue, the manager of the Johannesburg Eco-City Initiative, which promotes sustainable living in low-income communities.
Sugrue defines the eco-village as a place "where people work, play, grow their own food and generate their own energy". But, she explains, the village is not an "island" but strives to be in partnership with the broader Ivory Park community.
Decorating the buildings in the eco-village with colourful murals.
Photo by Cedric Nunn
The eco-village is run by a host of co-operatives, which sees members growing and selling vegetables to the community, fixing and selling bicycles, recycling waste, running eco-tours and sewing clothes. This month the construction co-operative - made up of 100 young people - will lay the foundations for the village's first homes.
For Solly Ramokgano, chairperson of the project's custodians, Midrand Eco-City board, the co-operatives give locals self-esteem. "These people, who had nothing before, are now being kept busy. Most of them have been without jobs for a long time and are now making a bit of money for themselves too… this project just looks at development in a different way than normal," he says.
Another element of the co-operatives, says Sugrue, is to foster the spirit of ubuntu. "Co-operatives are more of a democracy than a normal business because the workers decide everything. They make decisions on their salaries and who sits on their co-operatives' boards."
The long-term goal of the eco-village, she says, is to create a self-sufficient, ecologically friendly community. "This is more of a poverty alleviation project. People who live here are exposed to pollutants and don't have access to resources. By doing this we save money, create jobs and enhance people's use of their natural resources in a way that conserves them and improves their lives."
Johannesburg mayor, Amos Masondo, has referred to the project as a "pioneer among the poorest of the poor". The city council has thrown its weight behind the project over the years and has indicated that it is keen to twin the project in other parts of Johannesburg.
While the government and the Johannesburg council have funded the project, most of the R30m funding has been garnered from private donors such as the Danish government and the National Lotteries Board. They made the right choice. The eco-village has become the Johannesburg Eco-City Initiative's showpiece project. "We've provided the catalyst for the ideas...Now other cities, including Mogale City and Ekhuruleni, are modeling their projects on ours," says Sugrue.
That the project has changed lives - albeit only those of a small group of people thus for - is undeniable. "Ivory Park is lucky to have this project," says 26-year-old Lucas Langa, who is training to be a community bricklayer. His hands are smeared with cement as he practices his bricklaying skills in preparation for constructing the homes that will bring families into the village.
"Long ago this was a place of shacks, but it is no longer like that," says Langa. "We are changing our communities and have grown a passion for developing our area. You'll see in 2010 [the Soccer World Cup] the government will be relying on us to build houses for tourists."
And the 29 houses won't be run-of-the-mill RDP homes. Plans are to equip them with ceilings, solar panels, low flush toilets and water tanks to promote water harvesting and reduce dependency on municipal services.
Sugrue says the emphasis on cheaper renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power is aimed at reducing the polluting effects of coal braziers like umbhawulas, which have been linked to respiratory illnesses among township residents.
The simple bicycle too is playing a role in reducing pollution in Ivory Park. More and more people are opting to ride on their bicycles to get to work, thanks to the work of the Shova Lula cycle club. Their novel concept has an environmental edge - trying to get more people in Ivory Park to ride bicycles instead of catching taxis to work or driving their own cars.
The aim, says Sylvester Petje, 20, is for Ivory Park residents to save money on transport and for Ivory Park to cut down on harmful carbon emissions generated from vehicles.
Petje repairs secondhand bicycles and sells new ones imported at a discount price from the US and UK. "I always wanted to be in IT but never had the money to study," he says as he rummages for a wheel in a heap of spare parts. "But this is so much better. We don't make a lot of money but in our hearts, we know we are doing something bigger."
Sugrue expects the eco-village to be completed around March next year. "But we'll never really be finished," she says with a smile. "We'll never stop growing people. For us, infrastructure is not so important. It would be easy to hire a contractor to come build houses, but people are learning this way. We are building people."
For more information about the Eco-City project, contact Annie Sugrue on 011 407 6726 or annie@ecocity.org.za.
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