City of Johannesburg

Johannesburg Development Agency

No 3 Helen Joseph Street PO Box 61877 Tel +27(0) 11 688 7851 (O)
The Bus Factory Marshalltown Fax +27(0) 11 688 7899/63
Newtown 2107 E-mail: info@jda.org.za
Johannesburg, 2000

www.jda.org.za
www.joburg.org.za
To: All news editors
For immediate release
18 October 2019

JDA HOSTS COMMON PURPOSE STREETWISE MBA

On Wednesday, 16 October, the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) had the honour
of hosting an energetic group of emerging leaders, representing a cross-sector range of
local NGOs and businesses. The group is involved with a “Streetwise MBA”, a programme
run by Common Purpose, a global leadership organisation devoted to developing leaders
both at work and in society.

Under the theme, ‘Leading with Cultural Intelligence’, the session was aimed to help the
group explore the diversity of the context in which the JDA operates, to understand the

Directors
M Ntanga (Chairperson) F Brink (Acting CEO) S Moonsamy (CFO) S Jensma TG Sambo JW Karuri -Sebina EF Peters K Govender A Steyn P Zagaretos R Shirinda (Company Secretary)
Registration Number: 2001/005101/07
leadership challenges this entails and to understand the evolution of a City entity, such as
the JDA, have done to get the best results.

JDA has shifted its focus from triple bottom line outcomes (economic, social and
environmental) in the inner city and marginalised areas to an emphasis on resilient,
sustainable and liveable urban areas in identified transit nodes and corridors.

Over the five year term, the JDA has grown by almost 100% from 50 employees to 90
employees in the last 5 years to meet its extended mandate which included re-defining its
role as the Area Based Regeneration Agency of the City.

The session, which was facilitated by Ms. Hlengiwe Mbonambi, Monitoring and Evaluation
Manager Manager for the JDA, featured presentations from Mr. Douglas Cohen, JDA’s
Executive Manager: Planning and strategist, Ms. Xolisile Sithole Acting Executive Manager:
Development Facilitation and Ms. Seipati More, Stakeholder Manager.

Topics during the session included insight into the vision, mission and mandate of JDA,
insight into understanding of the JDA’s diverse stakeholders and insight into how the JDA
has evolved with the changing requirements of Johannesburg and its people.

The session ended with a walkabout of the Bus Factory, the head offices of the JDA, and a
tour of Mary Fitzgerald Square, in Newtown.

ABOUT THE COMMON PURPOSE STREETWISE MBA

The Streetwise MBA aims to develop inclusive, agile leaders with the Cultural Intelligence
(CQ) to work more effectively with diverse teams, customers and stakeholders.

Cultural Intelligence (CQ) enables leaders to work across different cultural boundaries that
exist between people of different geographies, generations, sectors, specializations,
backgrounds and beliefs among others.