The 1996 Yearbook of the Soweto Foundation

Our community, our supporters, and our political leaders have all said to the Foundation; we must keep a diary of how the Soweto Centre project is being developed. We are very proud of our accomplishments in fact the TMC have told us; “It is important to note that the entire aforementioned process (the development of the Soweto Centre) shall be a pioneering one, and applicable to all other subsequent projects initiated within the Baralink Framework. It is intended that the approach to this particular proposal shall be followed where any future negotiation and approval is required.” Through community consultation and support, co-operative dealings with the TMC and various MSS councils, and the commercial and corporate community, we have established a method of property development and community empowerment which is successful and must be documented, especially for others to follow.

In response to this request and excellent idea we have initiated a journal which has documented all our activities over the past year. As a collection of everything which occurred throughout the year we have aptly named this journal our Yearbook.

The 1996 Yearbook will contain our accomplishments and how we achieved them, our set-backs and how we over came them. Reports from the Foundation’s Chairman, President and CEO will paint a complete picture of where we have been, where we are today, and our future course of action. Pictures of Soweto will show the conditions as they exist today and renderings of the project will show how they will change. And many more items of importance and significant interest will be included in the Yearbook.

Click on the image to see the full picture (198KB)

The Yearbook will keep a chronological record of how we, as people of a community, achieved our dream of taking our development and empowerment matters into our own hands and how we built the Soweto Centre. This Yearbook will be an historical document which will be the roadmap for other people and communities to share with us in our accomplishments. Others will see how we succeeded and how adversity was turned into opportunity. Other will see how they can also achieve their dreams by following what we have initiated. The Yearbook Series will affect people from all walks of life, from all sectors of politics, business and social reform.

The initial run of the 1996 Yearbook will be 15,000 copies and distributed to:

In order to offset the costs of creating such a comprehensive Yearbook, it has been suggested to the Foundation that many companies would like to take advertising space and receive the benefits of being associated with such an important community programme and project. To preserve the exclusivity of the Yearbook we have limited the amount of advertising space to 40 pages. In order to further make the Yearbook a collector’s item, we will be using very high quality design, graphics and material. The design of the Yearbook will be by an award winning designer and most of the Yearbook will be in full colour. The dignity and importance of the Soweto Centre will be preserved and reflected in this Yearbook.