The Johannesburg Zoo celebrated its 119th birthday on Sunday, 19 March 2023. The celebration attracted young and old members of the public from across the city and beyond. Among the party goers was Zandile Buthelezi and her group of friends and family members from Thokoza, Mpilisweni settlement in Ekurhuleni. “We come from a very underprivileged community. When we heard the zoo is celebrating its birthday and at an affordable rate of R55 rand for adults and R19 for children, we had to make our way to the city,” said Buthelezi.
She said they heard about the birthday bash from Facebook and activated all the moms to plan for the day trip to the Joburg Zoo.
“Some of the kids have never seen animals of the zoo. Some have never experienced an event as big as the birthday celebration.
Being able to do that as a group for the children makes my heart smile,” said Buthelezi.
Among the entertainers of the day was DJ APLTHEGODLY, who served hits that had the millennials on their toes and the more matured crowd singing along to Sunday bests.
Tevin Campbell’s “Can we talk” was a definite sing-along old school song that had the crowd singing at the top of their lungs.
While minutes later the likes of the late AKA’s songs and “Hamba Wena” had the younger crowd up on stage in an ultimate dance-off.
Joburg Zoo’s Nonkululeko Sibande said that this year the zoo laid out more fun, free activities to the party to entertain visitors.
“What is a party without some tricks up our sleeves? Planning the event and the actual execution went extremely smoothly because we worked from what we did last year and just added more and improved where needed for this year’s celebration,” she said.
Visitors were treated to free rides on an old London red bus. It took zoo-goers on a tour of the premises. There was also face painting for the kiddies with giant jumping castles and much more.
The more matured visitors took a sedentary approach as they sat on the Centenary lawns of the Zoo with the heavily laden picnic baskets and enjoyed artists on stage such as Zee, Nxumalo, Nkosazana Daughter and many others.
Residents can’t wait to see what the zoo’s birthday will bring in 2024!
Written by Sascha-Lee Joseph
19/03/2023