Get close and intimate with your city – join #JoziWalks

22 June 2017

 

Hundreds of Johannesburg residents will this weekend have the rare opportunity to intimately explore and experience their neighbourhoods and backyards when they take part in a total of 13 guided tours of some of the most exquisite and unique places in the city.

 

The brainchild of the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA), the City of Johannesburg’s infrastructure development entity, the unprecedented #JoziWalks will take residents to places and spaces they might have never thought even existed.

The tours will cover vibrant and cosmopolitan suburbs such as Brixton and Fietas, Hillbrow and Sophiatown, Orchards and La Rochelle, Yeoville and Orange Grove, and Noordgesig and Orlando East.
They will also focus on the Johannesburg inner city and surrounds, Alexandra and its surrounds, and poor areas such as Diepsloot and Ivory Park.

Residents will, for a welcome change, be forced to leave their cars behind to explore the city on foot, visit cultural heritage sites, admire unique pieces of art and enjoy local cuisines at shisanyamas in Alexandra and the Roving Bantu Kitchen in Brixton.

In two exciting and fun-filled days, they will connect with neighbours and locals. They will also look at the City’s Development Corridors such as Empire and Perth, Louis Botha Avenue and Turffontein.

Some of the tours will take them deep into the history of the struggle for liberation and human endeavour – from the birthplace of the South African jazz in Sophiatown in the west of the city to the Nelson Mandela Heritage Centre in Alexandra, the oldest township in Johannesburg, in the east.
Each walk will start and end at a safe place.

Douglas Cohen, JDA’s Executive Manager for Planning and Strategy, says through the tours the agency seeks to give residents the opportunity to present a personal take on the culture, social history and development of the city’s different and diverse communities, engage with locals and share stories and ideas with them.

“The walks span a minimum of an hour and a maximum of three hours, with provision for water and a healthy snack for the 30 participants in each tour.

“Security personnel will be deployed to ensure the safety of participants during the walk and all the necessary arrangements will made to ensure all safety requirements are adhered to and the prerequisite costs are accounted for,” he says.

Although it is in its inaugural year, the initiative has exceeded JDA’s expectations, with most of the tours sold out within a few days of them being offered to the public.