Meet Elaine Jack

Elaine Jack is the City Improvement District Manager for Sandton in Johannesburg.

"Be bold enough to explore careers that are beyond the traditional Chinese preferred type choices because it is “safer”. Always follow your passion because if you enjoy your work day in and day out, you will never feel it is work at all."

Read more about why Elaine is proud to be Chinese and proud to be South African.

-----------------------------------

Name: Elaine Jack

Occupation: City Improvement District (CID) Manager – Sandton Central Management District

1. Where were you born?

Hong Kong and emigrated to SA with my parents when I was a seven (7) month old infant.

2. What school/college/university did you attend?

Chinese Kuo Ting School in Wynberg, After I matriculated I went to the Technikon of Witwatersrand (now part of University of Johannesburg) and studied Hospitality Management.

3. What is your fondest childhood memory, growing up as a Chinese child?

My parents were extremely traditional and so we always celebrated and also conducted some of the rituals to welcome the various Chinese festivals, like Chinese New Year, Ching Ming, Dragon Boat festival and Mid Autumn Festival at home. I am glad that even though we are so far away from our homeland, we are still remembering our heritage and culture in South Africa and I am glad that has been deeply instilled in me from childhood. I think all these festivities are always around family and I was fortunate enough to have family around me all the time at these special occasions.

4. What is your favourite Chinese food?

There are too many to mention as I LOVE Chinese food! Our Chinese food in SA still needs to reach the same level as the Chinese food in Hong Kong or Canada. I think the best Chinese food is in my parent’s kitchen :)

5. Where do you live?

Johannesburg

6. What work do you do?

I am an Urban Space Manager or Precinct Manager and I manage everything that affects the public space. So we provide “top up” services over and above what the Council does. It is to supplement and complement the municipal services with private sector money to take care of the public space. We identify a space and work with the community and the local municipality to create special places. And I look after the Sandton CBD which is a dynamic and exciting place to manage.

7. What do you love about your job?

I get to engage with so many different people from various business backgrounds and they all have their own perspective on what an exceptional place should be. And amazingly majority of them share this mutual respect and desire for the public space and that is to create a safe, clean and extraordinary destination of choice for all to enjoy whether you are a worker, resident and visitor. Most importantly I feel that whatever improvements I do for the public space, it is to benefit the community and it increases the value of the area. I always feel that we are that glue that makes the private and public sector stick together. I love serving the community to the best of my ability.

8. What is your proudest achievement?

I would say having the opportunity to manage Africa’s richest square mile, a place like Sandton is a great honour for me. And my greatest project to date was working with the City in successfully hosting the 2nd World EcoMobility Festival. This festival required the City to identify a neighbourhood and be ecomibile for one month. Sandton was at a time where we were seeing a growing concern around the increasing time in traffic for motorists on the road due to the work opportunity this node has created. A study was conducted by the CID in 2014 and the study showed almost 100,000 people commute to Sandton on a daily basis. And it is only to increase 7% per annum if nothing is done. It was not sustainable for Sandton to just keep building roads for cars and without any other available mode of transport to offer commuters. It was necessary for the CID to facilitate and engage with all stakeholders from the private sector and the City to look at solutions of addressing the growing congestion in the node and what better to get the parties to start talking at this one month long event to investigate and test viable transport solutions in Sandton.

9. Why are you proud to be South African?

Having grown up in South Africa all my life and also being part of the change to democracy, I am proud to have lived in this multi-diverse country all my life. Like many South Africans, I love my sports, and the intense pride and joy we felt as a nation when we won the 1995 Rugby World Cup, the Olympic Gold medal for the men’s relay in 2004 and hosting the 2010 Soccer World Cup, are some of the greatest sporting memories for me as a South African. I think with all its problems and challenges, it is still a country of great potential and opportunity. South Africa is our home and I believe it still has a lot to offer and grow. I have been fortunate to travel the world and one thing that does make me realise is that it is not always greener on the other side and the second thing is that it makes you realise how blessed we are here in South Africa, like the beautiful sunny weather and the great outdoors!

10. Why are you proud to be Chinese?

Being Chinese has been instilled in me from a very young age, I don’t know how not to be a Chinese person. I love the rich culture and history we have inherited from our ancestors, and the qualities of integrity, resilience and dedication to our family and work is what makes me so proud to be Chinese.

11. Name one Chinese tradition that you’d like future generations to continue with?

“血浓于水” meaning blood is thicker than water, the one Chinese tradition I would like to teach my children is the importance of family whether we are gathering and celebrating a Chinese holiday together or a just a family trip to the cemetery to remember family members that have left us.

12. What advice would you give to the Chinese youth today in South Africa?

Be bold enough to explore careers that are beyond the traditional Chinese preferred type choices because it is “safer”. Always follow your passion because if you enjoy your work day in and day out, you will never feel it is work at all.

Want to contact Elaine?

if there are communities or people who are interested in setting up a City Improvement District (CID) or want to understand how CIDs work are welcome to contact me on elaine.jack@cwexcellerate.com or 083 5555 289.