Johannesburg | Monday
PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki appealed to Johannesburg’s black and white residents on Monday to work together in restoring the city to its former glory.
Mbeki was speaking during the opening of the Mary Fitzgerald Square in the Newtown precinct, central Johannesburg.
He said that during apartheid, Johannesburg was reserved for whites while big business left the central business district when it became open to all South Africans. The previous government also neglected the city centre.
”You could see the city deteriorating. You could see the level of squalor in Hillbrow,” he said of the troubled area which has become known as a drug haven.
”Johannesburg used to be a city where people interacted and enjoyed themselves. It was a city of culture and arts. A place where all Africans from different countries who came to the city as miners met.”
Mbeki urged all residents to fight crime together so that businesses could return to the city.
”We have to make sure that Johannesburg does not die.”
The opening of the square was important in achieving that, the president said. He added that he hoped the opening would send a message to business that the government was committed to the rebirth of Johannesburg.
Mbeki congratulated black businesses which he said were beginning to return to the city.
He also paid tribute to Fitzgerald who he said played a role in the struggle. Fitzgerald was the first woman trade unionist who engaged in some of the earliest struggles to improve working conditions and the rights of mineworkers in the early 1920s.
Monday’s event was marked by a jazz concert which saw living legends Caiphus Semenya and Letta Mbulu take the stage. – Sapa