Katlehong, Gauteng

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Katlehong is a township located 35 Km east of Johannesburg and south of Germiston between two other townships of Thokoza and Vosloorus next to the N3 highway in the Ekhuruleni metropolitan of Gauteng Province of South Africa.

Katlehong was established in 1945 and has become a high density area in the Gauteng with 6 informal settlements in the southern part of Katlehong. There is serious overcrowding. For example in each tiny yard, shacks are set up for rent. One toilet often serves five to six families. Despite being surrounded by an industrial area, there is high level of unemployment. Katlehong is one of the most poorly served areas in Gauteng in terms of community development. Together with Thokoza it forms the second biggest black township after Soweto.

[edit] Via Katlehong

Lead by Michael Moloi, Vusi Mdoyi and Steven Faleni, the company comprises a community school of dance and an 18-members who are professionally outfit. They specialize in “Pantsula”, a South African township dance, and other neo-traditional forms such as “Gumboots”, “tap Pantsula” and “steps” - a township interpretation of Gumboots dance. Via Katlehong, through their innovative approach to Pantsula, Gumboots, Tap and Steps, they helped to revive the form, making it an important feature in South African contemporary dance today. They have won many awards along the way, including FNB Vita Dance, Dance Umbrella awards, Gauteng Dance Showcase, KTV Most Brilliant Achievement and Gauteng MEC Development Award amongst others.

They also currently participated in « Step Africa », an international cultural exchange dance workshops involving South Africa, the United States and Great Britain. They were currently involved in the Cultural exchange dance educational workshops in CNCDC Châteauvallon (France).

The piece « Nkululeko – celebrating 10 years in South Africa» was performed in many cities and dance festivals such as Les Rencontres de La Villette – Paris (France), Suresnes Cités Danse – Suresnes (France), C’est de la Danse Contemporaine ! CDC -Toulouse (France), and venues like Le Parvis – Scène

[edit] More about Katlehong

Katlehong - About 20 townships in Gauteng will benefit from R3 billion the provincial government has allocated for an urban renewal programme. Opening the legislature here today, Premier Shilowa said the project would be implemented over a period of three years starting this financial year. The townships that have been identified include Atteridgeville, Boipatong, Bophelong, Daveyton, Kagiso, Katlehong, Kwa-Thema (Duduza and Tsakane), Mamelodi, Mohlakeng, Munsieville, Ratanda, Refilwe, Rethabiseng, Sebokeng, Sharpeville, Soshanguve, Soweto, Tembisa and Watville.Mr Shilowa said the townships were chosen as they represented a large proportion of the people living in the province. "Our primary aim is to change the lives of our people for the better by beautifying our townships, providing decent schools, clinics, sport and recreational facilities, lighting, storm water drains, multipurpose community centers and bus ranks," he explained.

He also announced that all the identified townships would be tarred by 2009, and the commercial and transport hubs of these townships would be refurbished.A project manager will be appointed "with immediate effect" in this regard to oversee the project team and the smooth running of this massive provincial programme.The project team will comprise representatives from the departments of health, education, transport, public works and the various municipalities in the province.The first phase of the project will be completed by September this year."In addition to the provincial allocation, further funding will be sourced from municipalities, national government departments and parastatals," said Mr Shilowa.The renewal programme is part of an integrated socio-economic approach, to maximise investments in a bid to "build better communities in Gauteng".It's expected that the project will create much-needed jobs in the short-term through the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP).

Tender contracts designed from this regeneration project will have a bias towards companies with a compliment of youth, women, people with disabilities, provincial small business and entrepreneurs and unemployed graduates.Regarding informal settlements, Mr Shilowa said the provincial government would convert about 54 hostels in some of the townships into "affordable rental accommodations".Among the hostels that have been completely converted are Vusumuzi, Khutsong, Daveyton, and Ehlanzeni hostels in Ekurhuleni, Shoshanguve and Saulville in Tshwane, Dobsonville, Orlando West and Diepkloof in the greater Soweto. In addition, more than 392 informal settlements have been successfully registered with the Land and Deeds Office. About 70 percent of the dwellers will be relocated to decent and safe land. "We have noted with growing concern the number of victims of seasonal flooding, fires in informal settlements and children losing their lives in open storm water manholes and dolomite sinkholes formations," said Mr Shilowa. For this reason, the province will launch a Provincial Disaster Management Center by the end of this year"We have made important progress in fulfilling our commitment to formalise informal settlements by 2009 and eradicate informal settlement by 2014

[edit] External links

News

 This Gauteng location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.