Oops! Miscommunication sees construction start on bakery but at the wrong site in Durban
Homeland Security SA, a private security company with the Glenwood Urban Improvement Precinct (UIP), at the Davenport Park site in Umbilo. The metal rods protruding from the ground is where the concrete structure was going to be built. In the background is a community vegetable garden.
Image: Tumi Pakkies/ Independent Newspapers
The eThekwini Municipality's R6.7 million community bakery development programme got off to a bad start when construction started on one of them but on the wrong plot of land in Glenwood on Wednesday.
In December 2024, the Economic Development and Planning Committee received support from council to fund five bakeries in ward 01: KwaXimba, Ward 94: KwaMakhutha, Ward 32: Albert Park, Ward 61: Tongaat and Ward 107: Ntuzuma/lnanda, during the 2024 and 2025 financial year.
The cost per bakery container is R1.3 million. Two years ago Davenport Park was a crime hotspot and based on a park adoption agreement with the parks department, the Association Montessori International (AMI) and Umbilo Business Association(UBA) regenerated this ward 33 park. The lower Glenwood area has become notorious for prostitution and drug dealing on vacant land, in abandoned buildings and on street corners.
The UBA policy director Ian Campbell-Gillies said three full time gardening jobs funded by both AMI and the UBA resulted in an urban farming operation of outstanding success in terms of regenerating the area and lowering crime.
According to sources, a group of men arrived in a bakkie with building material at Davenport Park alongside the urban farming operation, a vegetable garden, on Wednesday. The men began constructing a cement pedestal for the bakery operation before it was halted when Durban Metro Police arrived together with parks department officials and the ward councillor.
Following a discussion between ward 32 Councillor Protas Ngonyama and ward 33 Councillor Fran Kristofer the matter had been resolved after it was discovered that there could have been a misunderstanding with ward demarcations. Both councillors initially declined to comment further but Ngonyama later said that the bakery project would be placed on Dunkirk Park, within his ward in Umbilo.
In a report to eThekwini council, it stated that the bakery programme is critical for achieving rural and township recovery objectives. The programme will also assist the city to contribute towards job creation and creation of sustainable livelihoods through supporting the development of Township-Based Enterprises, Co-operatives and Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs).
The report stated that the programme supports unemployed women, youth, people with disabilities and veterans, through the provision of fully equipped container bakeries and capacitating them to run sustainable businesses.
This is aimed at affording them with proper and decent working facilities to produce high quality bakery products, easy access to their markets and creating employment within their areas.
The report stated that the development of bakery facilities/industry within eThekwini is gaining momentum. Other benefits from the programme were:
To enable customers attraction and diversification of product offerings
Production of high-quality baked goods such as, bread, rolls and muffins
combination of nutrition, convenience and luxury
Linkages with other initiatives or complementing programs such soup kitchens
community gatherings, local traditional events, church gatherings, stokvels
School nutrition
Provision of capacity building initiatives such as mentorship, business
management and technical training
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