'hands' by Mlungisi Mzingi

The City of Johannesburg through its implementing agent, The Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA), has identified the VILAKAZI STREET PRECINCT (VSP) as a potentially important cultural, heritage and economic node. As such the short-term objective for the project is to stabilise, consolidate and improve the heritage assets in the Orlando area while the long-term objective aims to put in place a sustainable management model for the precinct. The scope of work for the current fiscal year will be the development of a detailed upgrade design framework with a focus on upgrade interventions and the implementation of immediate catalytic interventions that would initiate the development process. It is felt that long-term interventions could provide leverage for private and public sector investment into the area.

A key component of this development is the inclusion of an artworks programme aimed at marking and revealing a number of important historical and political sites, linked to the history of this area and the events that took place on June 16 1976 during the youth uprising. As this precinct has been home to numerous well-known community leaders, political activists and Nobel Peace Laureates Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, the artworks programme aims to commemorate and celebrate such individuals and the youth of the day who were instrumental in bringing about a critical turning point in the politics of South Africa.

The commissioning process to date has involved a 7-month workshop programme with local artists from the area, meeting on a weekly basis at the Mbuyisa School of Arts and Culture, situated on Vilakazi Street, in order to develop concepts and proposals towards the above-mentioned programme.

The artworks procurement process recently presented all of the work produced during the workshop period at Uncle Tom’s Community Centre in Orlando West, Soweto and has held two rounds of adjudication of advertised competitions and best works selected from the exhibition. The final selection of works to be implemented will be subject to engineering and fabrication feasibility and the programme is scheduled for completion in December 2009.