Downtown Joburg will be handed over to the troupes of the Gauteng Carnival on Saturday, with dancers and floats parading across town.

SEVERAL roads in Johannesburg's central business district will be closed on Saturday, 6 September for the Gauteng Carnival, and motorists and taxi drivers have been advised to find alternative routes on the day.

With the theme Pale ya rona, which means telling our stories, the carnival forms part of the programmes of Heritage and Tourism months - held nationally in September. It is a celebration of the province's diverse cultures and artistic talent.

An estimated 15 000 people, from 45 carnival troupes, will depart from Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown at 9am and make their way through the city streets to Johannesburg Stadium in the east.

To allow the revellers to pass through Joburg freely, several roads will be closed to traffic between 10am and 1.30pm:

• Corner Bree and Ntemi Piliso streets;
• Sauer;
• Simmonds;
• Loveday;
• Rissik;
• Joubert;
• Eloff;
• Wanderers;
• Delvers;
• Klein;
• Troy;
• Mooi;
• Gout;
• Nugget;
• End;
• Joe Slovo and Siemart streets; and
• Charlton Terrace.

Marshals and metro police officers will co-ordinate the road closures and ensure the safety of the public.

The carnival is in its fourth year; it is organised by the Gauteng department of sports, arts, culture and recreation to boost the province's creative industries and to help create jobs.

Several workshops were held to prepare for the event at the Sibikwa Community Centre in Ekurhuleni earlier this year. At these, Trinidad and Tobago's Stephen Derek, one the world's leading exponents of cultural art in the form of carnival costume design and construction, trained 30 young carnival practitioners from the province.

The department has also formed partnerships with the French Institute and the embassies of Thailand and China, which will add lion and dragon dancers to the mix. There will also be troupes from the Afrikaans, Scottish, French, Portuguese and Tamil communities, which will be showing off their traditions.

For more information on the Gauteng Carnival contact Nomazwe Ntlokwana on 011 355 2578 or 083 507 8068.

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