Mofolo Park

About Mofolo Park

Mofolo Park, which you will find in Mzilikazi Street in Soweto, is a popular park amongst Sowetans and well known for the music concerts regularly held there – jazz festivals, gospel choirs, carnivals, streetpop sessions and other local and international musicians who need a stage.

The latest of these was Youth Day's celebrations – 16 June – when, after laying wreaths at the Hector Pieterson Museum in Soweto in memory of the students who died in the 1976 riots, a music concert featuring Zahara and other local acts used the park as a stage. In 2011 Drum magazine put on its very first concert known as the Drum Beat Soweto music concert, at Mofolo Park. The park lends itself to day/night events such as these with enough room for stands and a stage, as well people's camp chairs, picnic blankets and braais.

Perhaps it is the rainbow proscenium arch for the stage that makes it so popular. Or maybe it is that it lies in the heart of Soweto, that makes Mofolo Park the popular arts venue that it is. The open space that is now Mofolo Park was previously a dump site with rubble enough that it had to be removed as part of the project. The park is a large corridor area through which the Klipspruit runs. Rumour amongst locals was that a large, child-eating snake lived in the overgrown river, hence a large part of the overgrown reeds had to be opened up to make the area attractive to locals.

Mofolo boasts a full-size soccer field and its toilets have rain harvesting capacity. It and two other parks – Orlando West and Dlamini Eco Park - form part of 36 interlinked park nodes or open spaces along the Klip River and Klipspruit.