Slovo Park at a Glance

Slovo Park is situated in a politically and socially sensitive stretch of land south of Soweto. The community has been known by national government as Nancefield, by local council as Olifantsvlei and in the last five years as Slovo Park – named in honour of South Africa’s first minister of housing and former Umkhonto we Sizwe General, Joe Slovo.

The forced changing of identity reflects an on-going struggle faced by the leadership of Slovo Park to gain recognition as a legitimate settlement to access governmental support. This battle has been fought through constant shifts in governmental policy, power and promises for the community of Slovo Park. Their only tactics comprising of service delivery protest, painstaking formal requests for upgrade and currently a lawsuit against the City of Johannesburg.

Currently the community of Slovo Park with its development partners are strategizing this key social and political move.


THIS SITE SERVES AS A PORTAL FOR THE COMMUNITY OF SLOVO PARK & THE VARIOUS DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS TO SHARE THE JOURNEY OF RE-DEVELOPMENT.


NEWSFEED



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Saturday, March 14, 2015

Green Week 2015, University of Johannesburg and Slovo Park


The purpose of the unit was for us (students) to work in a multi-disciplinary team, applying detailed knowledge of our various disciplines to innovatively solve an economic, environmental or social community-based problem for a community partner.

We met with our co-operatives from Slovo Park Youth Forum which is known as Community Youth Mission Club to talk about the social and environmental issues within the community they operate. We then all drove to Slovo Park and walked around for few hours to observe the changes they have done in the community. Our co-operatives were very kind and friendly to us, they bought us soft drinks to cool down after walking.


Mahlomola, Andrew and Tsogolo. (Youth Forum members)
The issues they are facing include lack of purpose amongst the youth, lack of opportunities
for the youth to develop skills, substance abuse, teen pregnancy & lack of motivation. The group would like to expose the youth to more opportunities such as internships and 
apprenticeships so they can develop their skills.









We suggested the following solutions as a group:

Creating an identity for the group so that they will be easily recognized within Slovo Park.

Create a ‘Notice Wall’ inside the community hall; the wall will be painted with black chalkboard paint so that notices can be written regarding the CYMC and opportunities relating to the youth.

A Facebook Page can be set up to keep the Slovo Park youth informed of opportunities as well as what the CYMC provides, this can be in digital form as posts or members can take photos of the ‘Notice Wall’ and post it on the facebook wall. This will keep information circulating and make the Community Youth Mission Club more interactive.






Please click link below to watch the video