The park lights up under a cloudless sky, with the wintry breeze having a negligible effect on one’s skin. There is a constant buzz of traffic at the nearby intersection, and the Rea Vaya bus station opposite the park is bustling as usual.

The streets around the park are teeming with people, with some sitting on the benches at the park, enjoying the rays of sunlight over some chatter. A few birds that call the park their home, fly through, creating a hive of activity.

On the luscious, immaculately kept lawn, surrounded by multiple trees of assorted sizes and colours, stands a five-meter tall Celtis Africanus tree behind a silver palisaded fence, which is said to symbolise the 27 years Madiba spent in prison on Robbin Island.

The tree, which is also known as stinkwood, is light grey with a touch of brown spots. It is an indigenous tree that grows in both high and low rainfall areas. The stinkwood’s leaves are usually a light green when the tree is young and turn to a darker green once it has reached maturity. The champion tree can grow up to 12 meters high, but in a forest environment, it reaches heights of 25 meters.

Jenny Moodley says the tree was declared a “champion tree” after the former president and his wife, Graça Machel, planted the white stinkwood to mark his 90th birthday and to commemorate National Arbor Month on 4 September 2008.

“The site is a popular international tourist destination and is visited annually by the Mandela Foundation and other dignitaries to highlight the importance of greening and the need to build vibrant, liveable communities,” says Moodley, the General Manager for Stakeholder and Public Relations at Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo (JCPZ).

Adjacent to the tree is a life-sized mural, an excerpt from the Nobel Laureates’ speech delivered in Oslo, Norway in 1993, and two plaques that remind visitors of Madiba’s legacy.

Another exciting element of the site is a blue heritage plaque that City Parks and Zoo unveiled in collaboration with the Gauteng Provincial Heritage Authority and the Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF) on the eve of Nelson Mandela International Day in 2017.

“Over the years, we have, for every year that Madiba was around, planted a tree. On his 89th birthday, JCPZ planted 89 trees, and then every year after his 89th birthday, we went ahead and planted a tree. We have also made it a point of bringing our former presidents as well as the current president to plant trees in Thokoza Park,” says Moodley.

She adds that every year, JCPZ uses Heritage Day, Mandela Day, and occasions such as World Environment Day to encourage local communities to help keep their spaces clean and green. JCPZ also uses these days to plant as many trees as possible.

“Our call to action is to foster green consciousness and for businesses to offset their carbon footprint. We have such an ageing canopy of trees, so we need to plant trees now to offset our older trees that will soon reach their full life expectancy,” says Moodley.

Thokoza Park is kept in its picturesque state by JCPZ and is well known for its other facilities on offer, such as being the perfect spot for family picnics and braais. It hosts many events, including art exhibitions and live jazz concerts. There is a children’s playground and lots of ducks to feed. The park covers 4.5 hectares, including the Moroka Dam.

Written by Sascha-Lee Joseph
18.7.2022