By Nangamso Mabindla
29 June 2005

A STATE-of-the-art nursery is being built in Mdantsane as part of the impoverished township's urban renewal programme.

The R500 000 nursery is one of the projects identified by the Eastern Cape department of agriculture as a strategy for alleviating poverty.

It is being built in NU 6. There are 70 beneficiaries, with each of the township's 14 wards represented by five beneficiaries. Zuko Somthunzi, of the Mdantsane Urban Renewal Programme, said these beneficiaries would be entrusted with running the nursery.

Service providers Go More were given the job of implementing the plan, including building and training and mentoring the beneficiaries in running a nursery.

"The service providers will mentor the beneficiaries for a year. They will also train them on how to run the nursery as a business once it is opened," Somthunzi said.

She said the funds to build the nursery came from the provincial department of social development, which monitored the project's progress.

The Buffalo City Municipality has approved the leasing of the land to the department of agriculture, on a month-to-month basis, at a rental of R900 a year.

As the nursery was part of the urban renewal programme, the City needed to ensure that it was sustainable. Somthunzi said that to guarantee the nursery's success, it would be linked to similar government initiatives around Mdantsane.

"We would like to link it to the urban greening project, the agri-tourism project run by national departments, and our own Urban Agriculture programme," she said.

The urban greening project is a R6,8-million initiative by the national department of economic affairs and tourism that aims to promote tree planting, vegetable gardening and self-feeding schemes.

"We would like the nursery to produce the seeds needed for the planting of trees during this project," Somthunzi said.

Market research had already been done to help find partners for the nursery. "East London florists have been approached to give support to the nursery, so markets have already been established," Somthunzi explained.

A fence and an office have been erected, and work is expected to be finished by the end of July.