By Ndaba Dlamini

Foreign local government managers from the International City/County Management Association were taken on a whistle-stop tour of Soweto. Among their stops was the Bara Taxi Rank and Motswaledi informal settlement.

Taking a break from their hectic schedule, visiting local government managers from around the world went on a marathon tour of popular spots in Soweto, learning a few local phrases along the way and sampling the township's cuisine at a popular restaurant.

The 14 delegates from the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), who are on a week-long visit to Joburg to exchange ideas and discuss issues relating to local government, visited the busy Baragwanath Taxi Rank on 28 March.

The hustle and bustle at the taxi rank, with its multitude of informal traders, horde of taxis spilling on to the dusty Diepkloof pavements and endless stream of commuters, presented a fitting image of Soweto life the delegates had obviously anticipated. Some marvelled at the activity and some took snapshots of hawkers, taxis and commuters. Some bought packets of sweets from delighted vendors.

Abraham Mongane, the group's tour guide, kept up a running commentary as the visitors admired the Bara Project. Still in its infancy, the project concerns turning the Baragwanath precinct into a major commercial hub, complete with shopping malls and mixed-income residential areas.

"Bara is one of the most popular places in the whole of Soweto," Mongane explained. "It comprises one of the country's biggest hospitals, Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital, and is the nodal bus and taxi transport point of the township."

At the Motswaledi informal settlement, a stone's throw from Bara, the delegates met Themba Zulu and David Manqaba, their tour guides for their trip around the settlement. The delegates were divided into two groups, with Zulu taking one group and Manqaba entertaining the other.

"The community of Motswaledi is composed of different tribes from all over South Africa but the main language we speak is isiZulu," Zulu said. "One street is served by one water tap and we do not have electricity. We also use public mobile toilets like the one over there," he added, pointing out a chemical toilet.

Zulu took his group to a spaza shop where they bought a sack of biscuits for a group of excited local children. Zulu also showed the visitors his three-room shack for them to "experience township life".

Thanks to Zulu's coaching, by the end of the Motswaledi tour the visitors were able to say "hello" in isiZulu and township tsitsital. From there it was a road trip past the Orlando Power Station cooling towers and dam, Soweto's famous landmarks and on to Kliptown.

"This is one of Soweto's oldest townships, where the African National Congress's Freedom Charter was drawn up in 1955. The area is currently being developed into a tourist attraction centre," Mongane explained.

At the Hector Pieterson Museum in Orlando West, the delegates got an insight into the township's turbulent past. Tricia Bergman, from the State of Washington in the United States, said she could not imagine the transition that had taken place in the lives of Sowetans since democracy.

"The tour has been excellent. It is actually my second visit to Soweto but there are so many places that I have not seen, I wouldn't mind coming back here again."

After the museum tour, the visitors were treated to lunch at Nambitha restaurant in Orlando West, where they could mull over the sites they had seen.

"The delegates have had several closed meetings at the Region 3 offices since Saturday," said Harvey Phalatse from the Johannesburg Innovation and Knowledge Exchange, or Jike. "They will meet with the Institute for Local Government Management members on Thursday, 30 March to discuss the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers - ICMA relationships."

They were expected to leave Johannesburg on 30 March, he said.

Related story:

Source: Johannesburg News Agency