Project Mitchell's Village

The Mitchells Village project commenced in late November 2009.

A community meeting in November at the Tusong Centre in tafelsig gave the community the opportunity to voice their needs and wishes. The delivery of a park was selected by the community as the most vital greening intervention as they felt this would assist in the unification of this housing development and the community as a whole.

Due to financial contstraints and a budget of only R100 000 per zone for new equipment for parks and recreation - it is impossible for City Parks to deliver to these low income housing communities.

We are able to create these play areas with the help of our sponsors. Much of our paving has been recycled from the Civic Centre upgrade and the balance has been donated by Western Granite who are supplying the new pavers to the City. This project is a community initiative and has been funded via the City of Cape Town by Danida
as an Urban Environmnetal Upliftment Programme. Over and above this there have been kind sponsors as far afield as Australia.

The provision of water by City Parks, Athlone has been a great asset and the park
continues to bloom.

The community have played an important part in this initiative. After a successful propagation workshop held in December 2009, the community have propagated plants at home and these have been used in planting around the park perimeters. The Wolfgat Park will be maintained and nurtured by the Mitchells Village Greening Community Members and they will be responsible for its sustainability and the parks future upkeep.

Mayor Dan Plato visited the park on Friday the 26th of Febraury. The community came out in their droves to greet the Mayor and after his inspection of the houses he graciously spent an hour talking to the community about their fears and issues .

Roland Williams from City Parks has promised to give the park a see-saw and a merry-go-round, which I am sure will be well received by the children.

The Wolfgat Park as it was named by the residents, has become the hub of the community, where the children can play safely and be supervised at all times by the Mitchells Village Neighbourhood Watch and the Park Monitors.

A special thanks to Tapie and Anneline for all their hard work as community volunteers and for the daily upkeep of the park.

Watch this space for updates on the next phase of the Mitchells Village Project:
Greening & Soil Stabilisation of home gardens to prevent further soil erosion around the foundations and to address climate change, urban renewal and beautification issues.