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Background |
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"We are faced with the stubborn reality of unacceptable levels of unemployment and poverty… due attention needs to be given to the second economy…. All South Africans are invited to ‘think outside the box’ if we are to tackle unemployment.”
Deputy President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, NEDLAC, August 27th. 2005
The idea for staging an event of this kind in Khayelitsha dates way back to 1983 when Adele Lucas Promotions staged the first Soweto Homemakers Expo. It was the first time an event of this kind (or anything similar) had been held in a township in South Africa. If one looks at the time this event was held, it makes it even more unique, given the political situation in the country at the time.
| The Soweto Homemakers Expo, which obtained “legendary” status, was held for 3 consecutive years and was a phenomenal success for exhibitors, sponsors and visitors.
This highly acclaimed event returned to Soweto in 2005 as the Soweto Festival - to highlight and celebrate 100 years of Soweto - and to pave the way for a new era of development in Soweto.
The event was repeated in 2006 and 2007 and is now firmly established in the annual calendar of the City of Johannesburg, the major sponsor. In 2008 it will run from 24th – 28th September at the University of Johannesburg’s Soweto Campus. | |  | | | |  | | The Khayelitsha Festival has been conceived and planned after careful analysis and lengthy consultations by the organizers, Adele Lucas Promotions, with multiple stakeholders at national, provincial and local levels, as well as with the private sector and representative community bodies. Using the successful Soweto Festival as a model, ALP approached the Department of Provincial and Local Government (DPLG) with the suggestion that this ground-breaking event be proliferated into other less developed parts of the country.
| | | ALP, in consultation with the DPLG, has provisionally selected Khayelitsha as the first township to implement this model. With three Soweto Festivals successfully staged, ALP is well placed to apply its knowledge and experience to running a similar – though localized – event in Khayelitsha. | | | Linking the first and second economies together
The changing social and economic landscape in South Africa presents ALP with an opportunity to refocus its years of experience towards the needs of the people living in the many townships adjoining our major cities. Our vision is therefore:
To be the leader in staging hallmark events in previously disadvantaged areas of South Africa, that create linkages between the first and second economies and thereby develop opportunities for small business, youth, arts and culture, community and tourism development in these regions.
ALP decided to replicate the model of the Soweto Festival into other parts of South Africa, beginning with Cape Town. | | | Government support
ALP has obtained the support at an executive political administrative level in all three tiers of government for its planned staging of the Khayelitsha Festival. The Mayor of the City of Cape Town, Helen Zille, and the Premier of the Western Cape Provincial Government, Ibrahim Rasool have given their personal backing to the event and the commitment of financial and logistical support.
| | | Community partnership
ALP has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Khayelitsha Development Forum and obtained their endorsement of and participation in the Festival. The Khayelitsha Business Forum will act as the Festival’s link with the local business community.
| | | Local implementation partner
ALP has appointed the Cape Town-based NGO The Heart of Healing as its implementation partner for the Festival and for the proposed Khayelitsha Social Development Festival Legacy Project. HOH has several years experience working in diverse communities in the Western Cape and has a credible reputation, vital for building up trust with all the stakeholders in the event and delivering on the Social Development commitments providing stakeholders significant, lasting direct and indirect benefits.
| | | Built on a bedrock of social and economic development
What makes the Khayelitsha Festival such a powerful potential renewal and transformation vehicle is that underpinning the slick professionalism, the `bling’ and the huge media coverage, is the solid bedrock of economic and social transformation and development.
“The Khayelitsha Festival has the potential to become a powerful renewal and transformation vehicle because it is based on the goals of economic and social transformation and development.”
Simon Grindrod, City of Cape Town MMC for Economic and Social Development By staging a hallmark, high profile event of this magnitude the Khayelitsha Festival contributes significantly to growth, development & social cohesion, helping to level a very uneven playing field and uniting provincial and local government, corporates, small businesses, NPOs and communities around a common goal of social and economic emancipation, transformation and development.
In a dynamic, entertaining way the Khayelitsha Festival celebrates and actively promotes entrepreneurship - showcasing and celebrating successful role models through the high profile exposure of emerging, competitive small industries and enterprises - based on sound business principles, recognizing and tapping into their own emerging markets.
At the same time, a sustainable, `getting-bigger-and-better-every-year’ event like the Khayelitsha Festival can and will make an ever-increasing contribution towards fighting unemployment, promoting BBBEE, Enterprise Development and for that matter, all important civic pride, prosperity and community spirit.
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