Itireleng Parks Team's receives long-waited award
The team, under the leadership of Parks Mofokeng, received R50 000 for taking second place.
This was during the Green Economy Branding Marketing Services Summit held at Sedibeng College in Vanderbijlpark on Thursday and Friday.
Speaking to Sedibeng Ster, the jubilant Mofokeng said they came in second position following their impressive presentation of Itireleng Parks Team's contribution in the community.
His organisation was established during the nationwide lockdown (Covid-19) in 2020 when they volunteered to clean the Boipatong township.
Back at the summit, Mofokeng said there were nine of them, and finishing in second place was the greatest achievement for the Itireleng Parks Team. When Itirelang Parks Team's name was called, there were celebrations and tears of joy from the team members. Despite the challenges and work as volunteers, the team never got discouraged.
Mofokeng said it wasn't easy, as some of the group members got discouraged along the way, but most of them continued with their mission to clean the townships. For example, the team cleaned the streets, schools, clinics, and turned the dumping place next to Lebohang Secondary School into a community park. Mofokeng told Sedibeng Ster that this reward came at the right time when they needed motivation.
'I must say this without being biased, Sedibeng Ster played a huge role in our success, and we will always be grateful for the platform it gave us. We were an unknown group when we started, and thanks to the newspaper for giving us this platform to promote ourselves, for the work that we do within the community. We also want to thank Cape Gate for believing in us, donating tools to the Itireleng Parks Team. Not forgetting those individuals who also contributed to the success of the Itireleng Parks Team,' said Mofokeng.
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Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, CEO of the Tourism Business Council, also cited the TOMSA levy, adding that imposing another levy would be unfair on the sector. "There is no other sector that has a levy, so it will be unfair to impose a levy on tourism when you don't impose a levy on anybody else who operates in any different way within the municipality. "We all pay rates and taxes and other dues, why introduce something that is targeted to one sector and not targeted to others? Why impose something to say it's the basis for destination marketing?" questioned Tshivhengwa. He said there were many municipalities with functioning tourism bodies. "What the municipality needs to do is fund destination marketing and make sure they realise the benefits. If they fund it, the return on investment is far greater. "There are many other models out there that are very successful. Cape Town Tourism has a different model where it's not necessarily funded directly through the municipality," he said. Tshivhengwa said the municipality needed to fix its infrastructure to attract tourists. "Fix the beaches and make sure there is no sewage going into the beaches and ensure it's a safe place. There will then be more economic activity and those in the tourism sector will derive benefits and be able to create employment. But to say you are going to impose a statutory levy and not do it for any other industry, is unfair. "Durban has not been getting the lion's share of tourists and the problem is infrastructure. You can go and market all you want, but if the beaches and water is not clean and we don't deal with issues of safety and security, no one is going to go there," he said. SUNDAY TRIBUNE
