First published in the Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper.
Adversity can be the mother of invention. In the face of Covid-19 in communities across South Africa individuals and organisations have stepped up to try to overcome artificial social divides and start to innovate to create communities based on care, solidarity and human rights.
One of these has been the “network of possibilities” being catalysed by the Makers Valley Partnership in the suburbs of Lorentzville, Troyeville and Bertrams in the inner city of Johannesburg.
It was here, several weeks ago in a car park at Victoria Yards, that a new social enterprise that aims to make good food directly accessible and affordable to the poor was launched.
Take your pick of Jozi s urban veggie gardens on this novel bike tour The Organic Experience will make you rethink the notion that downtown Johannesburg is a cold concrete jungle Selemagae Rosta Makhubele (Ma Rosta) at The GreenHouse Project in Joubert Park. Image: Sanet Oberholzer
I have never really thought of downtown Joburg as a place of green abundance, but I m happy to be proven wrong. Joburg is known as a concrete jungle but that concrete is actually very fertile, says Franck Leya by way of introduction to Honest Travel Experience s latest tour an organic experience of the city.
Born in the Congo, Leya left his country of birth as a refugee at the age of seven because his father, a political journalist, lived in fear of execution. Making their way through Zambia, Tanzania, Angola, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, it took them a few years to reach their destination: SA.
Explore Jozi’s urban farming spaces with this fun tour Sanet Oberholzer > By Sanet Oberholzer - 22 January 2021 - 00:00 Ma Refiloe of the Bertrams Inner City Farm. Image: Sanet Oberholzer
When you think of the city of Johannesburg, a picture of lush, sprawling gardens is not the first thing that comes to mind. But if you ask Franck Leya, he’ll tell you that you’re sorely mistaken.
Leya co-founded Honest Travel Experiences with Zanengcebo Mtembu in 2018, with the goal of making travel inclusive and affordable. “On our website the first thing you see are the words ‘bona fide’ experiences, which means ‘genuine and real’. That is the kind of experience we want to give every person who comes on our tours,” Leya says.