Page 32 - Service Delivery Review

Integrated Service Delivery: Maponya Mall Urban Thusong Service Centre

The Elephant

at the Mall

A Day in the Life of Maponya
Urban Thusong Service Centre

Maponya Mall and the Thusong Service Centre it hosts “It took Maponya $62.8 million, 28 years, and a string
are an enduring symbol of self-made entrepreneur of lawsuits to carve out the first shopping mall in the
Dr. Richard Maponya’s vision to create more than a bustling Soweto”, reports the Forbes Africa article.
marketplace for the residents of Soweto and beyond.
Toeing the line
The conspiracy of wet weather, loadshedding, faulty
traffic lights, and the perennially snarled-up highway The multi-service Thusong Service Center was
to Soweto add to the fraying of nerves on this Monday established in 2011 and is safely set back from the
morning at the end of the month. enormous elephant. Before the Maponya Thusong
Service Centre’s scheduled opening time, many
Even the usually helpful, calm and maternal WAZE lines of people had already start to develop near the
GPS voice (Jane) seemed out of sorts this morning door. Choosing which line to join without signage is
as she directed me to the Thusong Service Centre difficult, but the key is to choose one and stay in it.
in the Maponya Mall. The WAZE lady had somehow In the same way that grapevine gossip travels up and
neglected to warn of the toothpaste-like squeeze down the line, the information travels in snatches of
at the Chris Hani Academic Hospital t-junction as conversations.
minibus taxis, cars, and pedestrians jostled to be first
to cross a load-shed robot. Neither did Jane warn of Between the long waits and help desk of the Maponya
the elephant that stands guard at the entrance of the Thusong Service Centre, customers are rich pickings
Maponya Mall. for a motley crew of hustlers and information peddlers.
Their services range from paid-for-queue-jumping to
The elephant is the Maponya family’s totem animal a bit of help navigating the demands of officialdom.
and represents grit and tenacity. It concretely tells of To first-time visitors, any information is helpful. Still,
how Dr. Richard Maponya, a self-made businessman, because there is no official queue management staff
successfully turned the Maponya Mall into a one- in the vast parking area, it can be difficult to tell when
stop shop for goods and services for the residents of someone is helpful or harassing you.
Soweto and visitors alike.

A 2014 Forbes Africa article aptly refers to the iconic
mall as the veteran businessman’s “holy grail” and
the quest that Dr Maponya had pursued with the
single-mindedness of an elephant.

32 SERVICE DELIVERY REVIEW | Volume 15 • No. 2 of 2022/2023