R2m upgrade for KZN townships
Chris Khumalo
18 February 2004
The presidential urban renewal programme for the Inanda-Ntuzuma-KwaMashu areas in KwaZulu-Natal moved up a gear last week with a dedicated team established to actively work on a set of social and economic regeneration projects in the area.
The project, known as INK after the initials of the three townships, aims to develop the urban areas north of Durban and around the sprawling townships of Inanda, Ntuzuma and KwaMashu.
eThekwini Mayor Obed Mlaba and city manager Mike Sutcliffe recently held meetings with members of the community in KwaMashu, to report on the planned developmental projects, valued at more than R2-million.
Among these is a social development strategy project to be financed by the city to the tune of R300 000. Sutcliffe said this project seeks to define strategies to improve social conditions for INK residents.
"The project envisages a wide range of activities that will impact positively on aspects such as health,
security, education and training", Sutcliffe said. "The building of social capital will be a primary outcome of the projects identified by the strategies."
A further R400 000 has been set aside for an economic development project whose primary objective is to kick-start income-generating activities in the area.
"The strategies will focus on how to increase the levels of economic activity within the programme area, but will also seek to identify ways to improve the residents' employment prospects and access to the metropolitan economy", Sutcliffe said.
There is also an INK Greening Project, which will involve a series of garden competitions to encourage the more than 500 000 residents of the areas to work to improve their own environments.
An INK Cultural Renaissance project is also being planned, with an allocated budget of R300 000, as an experiment in building a positive image of the INK areas.
"Its focus is on the promotion of a variety of
cultural expressions, from drama to writing and music to cartooning", Sutcliffe said. "The concept is to build artistic expression around developing cultural values. A multi-art exhibition will be organised to identify and popularise the history of the INK areas and the heroes it produced."
The INK team is headed by Linda Mbonambi, who can be contacted at (031) 311-4601.
Source: BuaNews
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