Designed and developed as one of many townships under the notorious Group Areas Act, Gugulethu will once again be etched in the history books with the unveiling of its unique logo on Thursday 22 September.
The logo, believed to be the first for any township in the Western Cape, will be widely used as a branding tool for the area and will most likely sit alongside City and Western Cape government logos for events in Gugulethu. The emblem will also be engraved at the “strategic entry places of Gugulethu”, local schools, the police station and municipal offices, among other sites.
“Festive season is looming, and Cape Town is a well-known tourist city in summer,” Phumzile Nteyi, principal consultant at Hlahla Consulting, a public relations firm, said.
“We will ensure all places of fun and entertainment have the logo strategically displayed.”
Although the logo is a highly guarded secret until its unveiling on Saturday the 24th, City Vision can reveal the design process has been a monumental one. The emblem was picked from a series of creations by learners from schools around Gugulethu.
“We visited schools and local structures to get buy-in,” Dr Mzwandile Plaatjie, the brains behind the initiative, said. “We spoke to the officials of the department of education (Western Cape Education Department), the Mayor of Cape Town (Geordin Hill-Lewis) and Gugulethu Development Forum and other structures”.
According to the psychologist and former principal, the process began a while ago, but was severely hampered by the outbreak of the Covid 19 pandemic in the country.
“I observed that matters were pretty much worsened with the challenges faced by our youth. I reasoned that I can use my background as a psychologist, researcher and former history teacher to use creative arts to help young people realise the potential within themselves and help them deal with identity crises and internal conflicts that manifest themselves as social pathologies. The project was a mechanism, an outlet to help them realise who they were and to value of their lives more, particularly in the context of developing their township and the creation of sense of belonging and togetherness”.