City’s Spousal Office hosts Nigerian delegation

20 April 2016

 

The City of Johannesburg’s Spousal Office – led by Pilisiwe Twala-Tau, wife of Executive Mayor Councillor Parks Tau – this week hosted a delegation of the Nigerian Naval Officers’ Wives Association (NOWA) over two days to strengthen their ties and share learnings on youth and social development.

 

NOWA celebrated its 50th anniversary in November 2015. Delegates were taken to the City of Johannesburg’s Skills Village in Bertrams, Fresh Produce Market in City Deep and Eikenhof Co-operatives Farm and to a new artisan centre in Chamdor.

“NOWA has established schools and social development programmes in Nigeria. The 11-strong delegation, led by NOWA President Theresa Ibas, is interested in forging bilateral relations around the areas of youth and women empowerment,” said Twala-Tau at the end of the two-day tour of the city.

She said members of the delegation were particularly interested in how the food bank at the Fresh Produce Market worked and how informal traders co-existed to create opportunities within the retail space. They also showed interest in the art of transforming waste into high fashion.

“We were able to show them flagship projects at the Skills Village, which included a sewing co-operative and a soap-making factory. At the Eikenhof Farm, they spoke to members of co-operatives supplying fresh produce to Pick n Pay and Boxer supermarkets. They were blown away at the Waste-to-Fashion showroom in Roodepoort as they marvelled at the way clothing was being made from plastic.

“NOWA now plans to send 10 young people to Joburg to take part in a train-the-trainer programme so they can return to Nigeria to plough back.
"We’re also looking into the possibility of some of our young people spending time with the Nigeria Navy,” said Twala-Tau.

On Tuesday – on the second and final day of the visit – the delegation had lunch in Vilakazi Street, Orlando West in Soweto, where they were exposed to the burgeoning arts and craft industry lucratively benefiting from the growing tourist interest in the only street in the world that boasts the houses of two Nobel Peace laureates – the late former president Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

The delegation is expected to soon sign a skills transfer partnership agreement with the Office of the Mayor.

“As much as they learnt from the South African experience, we can also learn from the Nigerian experience and everyone will be richer from the exchange,” said Twala-Tau.