After a four-year break, this year the JoziWalks initiative has returned to the city with 15 community-designed and community-led walks meant as a celebration of seeing the city through the eyes of locals. 

The walks were first launched in 2017. This year the walks coincided with tourism month and were held under the auspices of JoziMyJozi. The movement has corporate-backing and is focused on bringing back social engagement and community building to the heart of the mission of restoring the city. 

The walks represented a way to make the daily realities of Joburg’s neighbourhoods more visible and in this way to make them less the things of fear and negative perceptions only. Through this initiative it is hoped that local solutions can take root and become part of the task of restoring Joburg through multiple but simultaneous strategies and initiatives.

Among the walks were an art tour of Soweto, Melville through the eyes of a local photographer, a visit to the Zulu Kwa Mai Mai market in the inner city, learning about the history of Fietas and walking under the Kensington stars to reclaim the night and the suburb streets after dark.

What was the problem?

Many of Joburg’s streets and neighbourhoods have become no-go zones or perceived no-go zones. The grip of crime, grime and real fear has made people retreat to the familiar and to be afraid of what they don’t know or understand. The less time they spend on the streets and in communities other than their own the less they are exposed to the range of realities that exist – good, bad and even the ugly. But misperception and assumptions feed misunderstanding, divisions and more social tensions. 

And the more despairing people feel the more checked out and tuned out they become. They feel less likely to engaged or interested to be part of building solutions, saying yes to positive collaborations or even believing that change can be small, incremental and possible. 

How are they solving it?

JoziWalks was revived in 2025 after a four-year break. Bringing the initiative back was the first win. The idea of walking means being physically present in a space without the “barriers” of being in a vehicle or bus, for instance.

This year’s walks also flourished because it allowed the 15 winning walk proposals to be community-led and community designed, embracing the realities rather than the over-curated. A small pot of funding support was made available – an essential element for community walks. 

The walk hosts designed walks to showcase and highlight the best of the hyper local in their neighbourhoods. There was also a focus to include micro and local small businesses in order to stimulate neighbourhood economies. Each walk was about inviting others to see parts of Joburg differently, to experience it with fresh eyes and to challenge their fears and assumptions. 

The walks reached an estimate 500 people over the weekend and were considered a huge success in being able to expose people to something new in the backyards of their own city; to spark ideas for more community building and it was a celebration of the resilient spirit of Joburg and Joburg people. 

What makes it work?

Focusing in on the local - The JoziWalks 2025 edition relaunched with a focus on neighbourhoods and areas that can and do fall through the cracks. They included the inner city “flatlands” of Hillbrow; Alexandra township and the sometime missed garden projects within Wits University. 

Community designed – Community hosts were given licence to design a walk based on their local knowledge and insights. This added to the authenticity of the walks.  

A strong media campaign – The JoziMyJozi platform together with The Joburg Photowalkers (a community photography club) and Johannesburg in Your Pocket (the city guide publication) ensured good publicity that led to sell-out walks for the weekend. 

Building a model for future walks – Walk hosts, many of whom were ordinary residents of their communities, shared and learned from each other creating the basis of knowledge and insights that can be used for future walk events. The organisers also introduced a nominal fee on tickets for the first time; in previous editions of the walks tickets were free. This ensured that participants also showed their responsibility and commitment to arrive and take part in an engaged manner. The walks were documented, creating data that will be useful for future initiatives.

Acknowledgements

Author: Fixlocal Reporter

Additional articles/sources: https://www.jozimyjozi.com/jozi-my-jozi-walks/

Photograph: Mark Fruhauf!