2011-10-05: Let's connect with public transport: Race across Joburg
OCTOBER is Transport Month and under the theme, "Connecting people and places", the City's Transport Month programme seeks to enable the people of the city to explore and connect with each other and with key places of interest. In so doing it seeks to focus on promoting public transport as well as walking and cycling which are environmentally friendly ways of getting around.
On Friday 07 October 2011, the City will host a "Lets Race across Joburg" event where five teams consisting of celebrities, councillors and transport stakeholders will start from five different places in the South and use public transport to race to Kyalami in the North.
The five places that they will start from are Ennerdale, Thembelihle, Poortjie, Orange Farm and Lakeside. They will have to use their own knowledge and experience to get from these places using public transport to the Theatre on the Track in Kyalami.
"We are very excited to announce this race to profile the strengths and weaknesses of public transport in the City of Joburg", said Clr Rehana Moosajee, MMC for Transport in the City of Joburg.
"At the end of the race, the different teams will explain to a gathering of public transport operators their experiences. We hope the lessons learnt from their experiences will be taken to heart by the operators", she added.
The teams will include the following celebrities: Doctor Khumalo, Lebo Mashile, Hlubi Mboya and David Mabusela as well as a number of well-known individuals from Kilo2kili. Kilo2kili is a non-profit organisation aiming at promoting youth leadership in South Africa. To raise money, they are climbing Kilimanjaro in December 2011. Standard Bank has also entered participants for a team.
The event will include the relaunch of the open deck buses and other buses that Metrobus has for private hire.
This event forms part of the City of Johannesburg's transport month activities and is informed by the City's conviction of building a better Joburg through promoting the use of public transport as well as walking and cycling.
"We believe it is very crucial for government to highlight the need to continuosly improve public transport" concluded Clr Rehana Moosajee.
Issued by:
City of Johannesburg
For more details about the event, contact:
Dudu Lushaba
Cel: 083 571 6668
OR
Tebogo Mogashoa
Cel: 072 207 5945
"Building a better Joburg: Promoting public transport, walking and cycling"
