Izwi - Cato Manor Community Newspaper

Vol.54
November 2002

Sponsored by the
European Union

Published by the Cato Manor
Development Association

Chesterville library opens

Mayor Obed Mlaba and Chairperson of the CMDA Board of Directors,
Willies Mchunu, officially open the Good Hope Centre
which consists of a library and a community hall.

A partnership between local government, the community and the local development agency, CMDA, has once again highlighted the best route for government to deliver much needed services to previously disadvantaged communities.

Proof of their success is the recent delivery of the Chesterville Extension Library and the Community Hall, officially opened amid cultural events by His Worship The Mayor Obed Mlaba.

The two facilities stand proudly in the new housing project in Chesterville Extension 3 below the Pavilion shopping centre on Booth Road.

The library, built with RDP funding, will be run by the eThekwini Municipal Library Services and offers the surrounding community members access to books and CDs, an audio-visual room, a study hall for use by students studying for exams, and rooms for community meetings.

Library employees had they hands full signing
new applications for membership during the opening of the Good Hope Centre.

The community hall, which was funded by the European Union, can seat 300 people during functions such as weddings, cultural and sports activities, school and church events. Its design has been adopted by the Architectural Department of the eThekwini Municipality as the basis for other halls being erected in the eThekwini area.

Mr Dusan Botka, Technical Assistant to the CMDA for the EU, said, “The low cost at which the hall was constructed, as well as the fact that it has become a basis for designing other facilities, satisfies the EU development assistance requirements. Sustainability and replicability of the solutions achieved through the use of EU funds ensures that the impact of the development assistance goes beyond specific projects and benefits a much wider community in Durban and beyond.”

Boost for backyard food growers

Backyard farmers will receive starter packs
from the Agricultural Ministry as a means to
fight poverty and improve quality of life.

by Gugu Mzimela
Local garden clubs are to receive start-up packs containing seeds, fertiliser and production guidelines as part of an initiative by the ministry of agriculture & environmental affairs to assist the poor in the face of rocketing food prices. This initiative is an encouragement to poor communities to grow their own food, ensuring food security in the future. It comes shortly after an increase in old age pensions, child support and foster care grants, which can be used for other family needs.

The start-up packs consist of a VEGETABLE PACK that contains cabbage, spinach, beetroot, butternut seed and fertiliser; a FIELD CROPS PACK which contains potatoes, maize, dry beans, lime and fertiliser; and a POULTRY PACK containing 20 birds, 25kg of starter feed, 25kg of finisher feed and vaccination ampoules.

Support and production guidelines will be available to growers as well as broiler chicken growers.

Provincial Minister for Agriculture & Environmental Affairs, Narend Singh, said: “What we are trying to do is more sustainable than handing out food parcels. We are teaching people to fish, not giving them fish.”

The CMDA Spatial Planning Unit has made a piece of land available to a group of local garden clubs for this project. Some of these clubs belong to community health workers who are hoping to use the start-up packs to set up soup kitchens for the terminally ill.

“I believe that encouraging people to grow their own food is the correct response to rising food prices because they do have the capacity to produce significant quantities. This project should contribute to rescuing them from immediate need and placing them on the road to sustainability during these difficult times,” Singh said.

The department has put up R1 million for the project and is also challenging business and donor agencies to contribute to the campaign. At a cost of R50 a pack, the department plans to distribute 20 000 packs.

The start-up packs will be administered through the Urban Agricultural project, an initiative of the Community Development Unit.

IN THIS ISSUE

Cato Crest Development

Early Christmas in Dunbar

Famous Referee in Cato Manor

IZWI supports the fight against HIV/AIDS

IZWI is published by the Cato Manor Development Association PO Box 30230, Mayville 4058
Tel (031) 261 6640 Fax (031) 2616671
Editor: Mazwi Ngcobo
Project Manager: Shelley Gielink Managing Editor: Chris Chapman Photos: Mazwi Ngcobo Design/Layout: Shakila Chetty Produced for CMDA by:

Artworks Publishing & Communications

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