About the centre

The centre is an environmentally friendly building that demonstrates appropriate environmentally friendly technology, thermal comfort, natural and energy efficient lighting, natural ventilation, solar power in the energy room and solar hot water heaters for the bathrooms.

West Wing Energy Room with Solar Power Ladies Toilets with Solar Hot Water Heater

The centre consists of an auditorium, administration office, computer room, water wise ablution facilities, four environmental theme rooms focused on water, waste, biodiversity and energy with an outdoor “Living Classroom”. The centre is situated behind Nelson Mandela Park, on the Western banks of the Moretele Spruit in Mamelodi and is a model of environmental best practice.

The JNF Walter Sisulu Environmental Centre creates a venue for the learners and educators of 72 Mamelodi Schools, the 186 schools in the Southern Tshwane Educational District and the surrounding community to learn about the environment. It provides key applications and resources for educators integrating the environment into the Outcomes Based Curriculum (OBE), assisting educators to develop activities and lesson plans in the relevant learning areas.

There are four main themes rooms covering the environmental awareness areas of water, biodiversity, waste and energy. The educational content of the rooms has been developed so as to correlate to and support the National Curriculum Statements of the Department of Education; thereby enabling educators to utilise the centre to complement classroom learning areas. The Biodiversity room is linked to the outdoor “living classroom” which is a model of a school permaculture garden demonstrating food production for school feeding, medicinal plants for primary health care, a small forest ecosystem, wetland and forest garden orchard.

The aims of the JNF WSEC were developed within a wide forum and include:

• Encouraging learners and the community to use environmental resources in a sustainable way through environmental education programmes.
• Assisting educators to implement the outcomes in learning areas that relate to the environment
• Involving every school in Mamelodi in environmental programmes that include learners from early childhood development to those engaged in further education and training.
• Supporting and Promoting projects such as the WWF Eco-Schools Programme
• Providing a venue for Further Education and Training.