Soweto gets new park in just 24 hours

It is barely 8am on a crisp autumn Friday morning and the staff of Johannesburg City Parks are hard at work on day two of the 24-hour Diepkloof Xtreme Park Makeover. 

Only ten hours remain before City Parks unveils what is their most ambitious project yet: the 24-hour rollout of a multipurpose park, complete with a playground, soccer field, water features, splash pool, landscaped lawns, walkways and an amphitheatre with a big screen TV.

“We are going to make it,” says a confident MD of Joburg City Parks Luther Williamson, who will be accompanied by Mayor of Johannesburg Amos Masondo for the ceremonial unveiling of the Park scheduled for 6pm on Friday evening.

The project’s supporters include the City of Joburg, the World Conservation Union and Highveld 94.7fm who broadcast their breakfast show live from the park.

Williamson was inspired to launch the XtremePark project after watching the American TV Series Extreme Makeover. He does however believe that his XtremePark Makeover can give the US TV Series a run for its money.  “They spend seven days on a house. We’ve only got 24 hours to complete a two-hectare park!”

Over 200 people are at work on the site at any given time on this R4.6 million project that would normally take 4 months to complete.

The planning of the project began three months ago, explains Williamson. An internal team at City Parks calculated the details of what would need to go into a 24-hour project of this scale. “We’ve gone as far as calculating how many seconds it takes to lay instant grass or how many seconds it takes to lay paving,” he adds.

The Diepkloof Xtreme Park is situated on what used to be a derelict piece of land that was overrun with illegal dumping and litter. The project is part of the City commitment to ‘green’ Soweto and redefine open spaces in the area. City Parks has engaged with the community in the roll out of the park with contractors being hired from the area.

As the countdown draws nearer, there is no doubt that the current latent sense of urgency will become more overt and drive the project to completion. But for now the site is a hub of festivity as visitors, media, government and City Parks officials mingle against the backdrop of the constant hum of construction and hard work.

The Mayor will officially unveil the 24-hour Diepkloof Xtreme Park at 6pm on Friday 9 May. Visitors are welcome.  The park is situated on Immink Road, Diepkloof Zone 2, Soweto.