Why the Soweto Centre will be successfull

The professional team has worked to develop a centre that has a broad range of facilities under one umbrella.

Together these facilities complement each other. They bring people into contact with other interests and activities. The facilities also support each other. Those facilities that generate income from their activities are vitally important for funding community facilities. These community facilities provide a range of valuable services to the community at little or no cost, improving the quality of life for many of the Soweto residents.

The centre will offer over four million people a chance to realise self-worth, self-esteem and self realisation. Most importantly each individual member of the Soweto community will be given an opportunity to help improve the lives of those around him.

Centre Facilities - Architecture

The foundation works on behalf of the community to professionally translate their needs into workable concepts and realisable goals, in the quest for upliftment and development.

The foundation must fulfil the mandate of the community by developing facilities that in time will be self-sufficient and profit generating, and facilities that will set the precedence to fully develop Gauteng and all of South Africa.

Research carried out by the executive and professional teams in conjunction with the community identified various facilities that are urgently needed. It was established that the provision of these facilities will positively contribute to the overall advancement of the Soweto community.

The identified facilities include:

• 15 000 seat, covered, multi-purpose arena
• Cultural complex offering facilities to promote and teach various aspects of fine and performing arts, and music
• Gymnasium complex
• 250 Room Hotel
• Convention centre offering meeting, presentation and conference facilities for up to 200 people
• 2 x 300 seat Theatres to support the Convention centre and Cultural complex
• Entertainment complex offering MAXI Movies Cinemas, a food court, a 10-pin bowling alley, games rooms for table games, billiards, chess, checkers, snooker and so on, and an arcade parlour with electronic and video games
• Crèche for 3000 children
• Educational complex which will support primary and secondary education facilities, as well as offer a centre for tertiary education and other development programmes necessary for the upliftment of the community
• 15 000 square metre Office block
• 30 000 seat outdoor Sports Park stadium for outdoor athletic activities and community gatherings
• Sports Park comprising pitches where various outdoor sports can be played, food kiosks, locker rooms, ablution facilities and so on
• Retail mall complex
• Hawkers market
• Water-slide park and swimming baths
• Parking garage
• Transportation complex - bus and taxi ranks, as well as a rail station immediately adjacent to the centre
• Sports Science Institute
• Waterfront Complex

Support

The Soweto Foundation has taken great care to consult all the relevant role-players and communities and we are very proud of this achievement. It has always been the goal of the Foundation to build this Centre with the people of Soweto and not to be seen to be doing it for the people of Soweto.

It has been a long and often frustrating process, but the Foundation was determined to consult as wide as possible, and today, the Foundation enjoys the support of a large number of influential, community business and political support .

It is also for this very reason that Omar Sharif Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd was delighted to enter into a joint venture agreement with the Foundation in a bid for a Casino License at a site called Fun Valley, about 10 km south of Soweto and Mr Sharif has also demonstrated his confidence in and personal support of the Foundation, by becoming a patron of the Foundation. For more information about this, refer to Joint Ventures.

Should our bid for a casino licence be successful, this joint venture gives the foundation a 47% shareholding in the licence holding company and the proceeds from this would be re-invested into the Soweto centre, as well as other community projects.

We also believe that due to the broad consultation process the Foundation has gone through, it will form the basis for the success of the Centre

We believe that this Centre will offer a wide variety of facilities and will attract the different people from the communities surrounding it. To demonstrate this, Young & Rubicam has done a study demonstrating the interaction between the different groups of people and the Soweto Centre.

In summarising, we believe that the Soweto Centre will be successful, because of the following factors.

• It is a all-comprehensive facility, offering a wide range of facilities under one roof.
• Enjoys wide support from the community, business and political groups.
• Has strong partnerships to further enhance the success of the Centre.