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|                          Wednesday 12 June 2002                          |
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|                               Media Release                              |
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Joburg Mayor visits Diepsloot


City  of  Johannesburg  Executive  Mayor Councillor Amos Masondo will visit
Region  1&2-Midrand ?Diepsloot on Thursday 13 June 2002 from 2pm. The visit
is  part of Council's endeavour to increase interaction with communities it
serves.


"The  Mayoral  Road  Show,  the  6(superscript: th) in a series of 11, will
focus on challenges faced by communities. In accordance with the Batho-Pele
-  people first principle, the Executive Mayor will meet the local business
community and hold an Imbizo at the Multipurpose Sport Precint in Diepsloot
at  7pm.  The  Imbizo,  a  community  participation  forum, will afford the
community   an   interactive   opportunity  to  contribute  towards  making
governance  more  effective  and  more  people centered," Council said in a
statement today.


Council  also announced that the Mayor and Members of the Mayoral Committee
would  visit  various  infrastructural,  economic  and  social  development
projects in the region. These will include :


JOHANNESBURG ECOCITY INITIATIVE


The  Johannesburg  EcoCity initiative is a needs-driven people's programme,
addressing  poverty  alleviation through local economic development. Facing
its  developing-world  challenges,  EcoCity  seeks  innovative, technically
relevant and ecologically sound solutions


EcoCity is a partnership programme between the City of Johannesburg and the
EcoCity  Trust.  Although  EcoCity  does  much of the implementation of the
programmes,  it  does  so in close collaboration with the city. Many of the
city's  employees  play  prominent  roles in the implementation and this is
noted, where appropriate in this report. The project features:


Ivory Park Urban Eco-village


To  demonstrate  an  alternative way of planning that allows easy access to
business  opportunities and agriculture as well as housing that is based on
sustainable development.


Phase  1  of the village, the component consisting of the business units is
partially complete.


Phase  2  of the village, the residential component will be completed later
in  the  year.  Housing subsidies are being accessed through the Provincial
Department  of  Housing and funding will be sourced to add the eco-friendly
component on to the houses.


The concept has resulted in job creation, both permanent and temporary. The
eco-village  has  created  and  will  create over 400 temporary jobs. The e
co-village  is  an  eco-tourist  destination  and  it  can  also be use for
training purposes by other NGOs, CBOs and local government.


  The Iteke waste recycling co-operative


The  project  is aimed at collecting and recycling waste using local labour
thereby reducing the amount of waste going to landfills.


The  site  currently  employs  40  people  and  has a sister project called
Twanano  that  makes  recycled paper from vegetation and waste paper. It is
being extended into Midrand, Rabie Ridge and Ebony Park.


Kopanang Bakery


In 1999 the Social Developers from Region 2 facilitated bakery training for
a  group  of six women and one male at Anchor Yeast. The group was assisted
by  the  Agricultural  Research  Council  (ARC)  of the CSIR to develop the
concept of a fully-fledged bakery, housed in two containers.


    They  received  an amount of R250 000 from the Poverty Alleviation Fund
on the strength of the business plan presented to the Gauteng Department of
Social Services and Population Development.


  In  the  meantime,  Snowflake also joined the project and provided one of
its  staff  members to train the members of the group for 4 months on site.
They  also donated the first batch of ingredients when the bakery opened in
November  2001.  For  the  first three months, the group put all the income
generated,  back  into  the  bakery.  The  first  salaries  they  took  for
themselves  were an amount of R 800 each. The group now each earns a salary
of R 1000 per month and has also built toilets and a storeroom on the site.
The  bakery  now  produces  about  500  loaves of bread per day, as well as
rolls, scones, vetkoek and rusks and has a monthly turnover of R12 000.


ENDS.
Nthatisi Modingoane
Media Liaison Officer
CITY OF JOHANNESBURG
Tel: (011) 407 7354
Fax: 403 3494
Cell: 082 378 6977
E-mail: nthatisem@joburg.org.za

For more information about this wonderful City of ours, please visit our
website : www.joburg.org.za

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