R250m shopping centre for Alex
Bongani Majola
4 June 2003
The Alexandra Chamber of Commerce (Alexcoc) announced last month that it would go ahead with the building of a state-of-the-art shopping centre in the township north of Johannesburg.
The centre is projected to cost about R250-million and will occupy close to 44 000 square metres, covering the area along London Road into Tsutsumani, the village originally built to house the 2000 All Africa Games athletes.
"This is by far the most ambitious project of its kind ever undertaken in the poverty-stricken township," said Alexcoc president Joe Manana.
Manana, a local businessman, expressed optimism that other players from the private sector would invest in the project. "Already," he said, "the 4 000-member strong Alexcoc, which comprises entrepreneurs from street vendors, hairdressers through to shebeen owners and funeral undertakers, has pledged its total support for the project."
An illustration of the Alexandra shopping centre
Though an independent venture, Manana said Alexcoc would be working closely with the Alexandra Renewal Project as well as the City of Johannesburg's Region 7 local and economic development task team.
"We will incorporate the Alexandra community and all stakeholders every step of the way because we believe a successful venture is an inclusive process. So we are still all ears for whatever contribution people will make," said Manana.
Architect Julian Michaels, the designer of the complex, said the centre would also incorporate cultural activities, arts and crafts.
"Initially providing around 32 000 square metres of rentable space," Michaels said, "and rather than functioning only as a shopping centre, it will create a multicultural commercial zone where existing spaza shop owners and small traders will be integrated and absorbed into
the centre."
President Thabo Mbeki launched the Alexandra Renewal Project in his 2001 State of the Nation address, committing R1.3-billion over a seven-year period for the massive upgrade of the historic, densely populated township in the northeast of Johannesburg.
The Alexandra Renewal Project is a massive initiative to improve living conditions and upgrade human capacity in the township. The project includes about 130 programmes, some related to environmental development, others to the development of human skills and still others dedicated to upgrading housing in the township.
One of SA's oldest townships
Established in 1912, Alexandra is one of the earliest urban black settlements in Jo'burg, predating even Soweto. It was in Alexandra that many early migrants lost their pastoral innocence and surrendered to the temptation of the urban milieu, albeit a squalid one.
In the 1950s, Alexandra was home to prominent political
activists, among them one Nelson Mandela. The house in which he stayed for three years before he moved to Orlando West stands derelict along 7th avenue, with its plaster peeling off. It is to be restored and converted into a museum as part of the Renewal Project.
The township also gave birth to legendary gangsters like the Msomi gang and the Spoilers - notorious groups which inspired fear among locals. In his novels, Mongane Serote, an ANC MP and a prominent South African author who grew up in Alexandra, invokes the township as a harsh environment to which he is irrevocably attached.
Alexandra was one of the few urban areas during apartheid where black people could own land under 99-year freehold title. This concession led to the area being overcrowded by people who found it relatively easy to settle there. This unplanned influx put pressure on social infrastructure. Many landlords profited by sub-letting their yards to people desperate for land.
It is this legacy
of social, environmental and economic degeneration that the Renewal Project seeks to reverse.
Source: City of Johannesburg website
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