MMC for the Department of Community Development in the City of Johannesburg, Nonhlanhla Sifumba writes,
The Department of Community Development within the City of Johannesburg ensures the delivery of sports and recreation programmes; arts, culture and heritage programmes; and library and information services – as well as ensuring the development and maintenance of the City’s open public spaces, parks and Zoo; and delivering programmes through the 3 City theatres – by ensuring equitable access and development.
The department, which is at the forefront of service delivery in the City, offers a platform for nation-building and social cohesion, along with meaningful redress to communities that were previously on the margins of service delivery.
The Department of Community Development overlooks the care and maintenance of 57 swimming pools, 113 recreation centres, 283 sports facilities, 87 libraries and 11 museums. The department has three directorates, the Arts Culture and Heritage, the Libraries and Information Services and Sport and Recreation with two entities, the Joburg City Theatre and Joburg City Parks and Zoo.
This year, we are proud to have launched the first ever Community Development Regional Service Delivery Roadshow – a showcase of all the Department’s service offerings. We have also launched improvements to our facilities – such as outdoor gyms, eco-friendly ablutions at our Inner City parks, as well as unveiled three Inner City Parks. Our conservation programme at the Zoo has also contributed significantly to the endangered Pickersgill’s reed frogs, species, breeding and releasing 200 frogs back into their natural habitat. Zoo Lake was voted number one in the Star Readers’ Choice Awards, 2018. Through the City of Johannesburg’s Library and Information Services, we launched a library partnership with the University of South Africa (Unisa).
This collaboration is to ensure that we provide support to Unisa’s 20 000 students within the City of Johannesburg. Joburg libraries also collaborated with Google SA to empower youth with digital skills. Forty-eight of the city’s 54 pools were opened at the beginning of the swimming season. The inaugural Joburg Choral Concert was successfully launched at the Orlando Communal Hall in Soweto on the 29th of June 2018.
All our staff members are heroes. They sacrifice a lot of their time and energy, often long hours, to ensure that our residents experience service delivery with pride.
We would like to ask residents to please take care of facilities – not to litter or vandalise – to take pride in their spaces. We would also like our residents to ensure that all children are supervised – especially around the pools. We urge residents to obey and adhere to the City’s by-laws, especially in the parks and swimming pools, which are spaces designated for family enjoyment to ensure an enjoyable festive season for everyone.
