EMAKHAZENI LOCAL MUNICIPALITY

Our thanks to Highlands Herald for this article and picture

Emakhazeni’s Executive Mayor, Councillor Hamzer Ngwenya

Interview by Highlands Herald, the Voice of the Heart of Mpumalanga

Blog: www.hherald.blogspot.com

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The Highlands Herald spoke to Councillor Hamzer Ngwenya, who, after being the Emakhazeni Local Municipality’s (ELM) speaker for the past five years, has just been elected as its new executive mayor. His vision? “For Emakhazeni to be a united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous municipality, where councillors are workers serving the community”. He also made the following announcements...

Good news

High altitude training centre and sports academy

It’s official, the land adjacent to the Belfast Dam on Tweefontein farm will boast a state of the art high altitude training centre and sports academy. The initiative, a partnership between the Mpumalanga provincial government and the Portuguese government will provide jobs, as well as help develop local sport talent in the province. According to the mayor, that the centre will be in Emakhazeni (rather than Dullstroom) will help develop another town in the area. Construction’s due to start in September 2011 with a five year time line till completion.

makhazeni boulevard

A spanking new development is planned for the left of Bhekumuzi Masango Drive as you drive from the N4 into Emakhazeni. The developer, Elmir Holdings, approached the ELM for land to build the office, residential and retail block. In April 2011 ELM publicised its intention of entering into a land availability agreement with Elmir, giving the public a chance to object; and now it’s all systems go assuming Elmir can raise the capital for the development. 

Integrated housing development

Siyathuthuka’s Extension 4 has been earmarked for a R5 million integrated housing project, which will see 1,000 low and high cost houses being built - all part of government’s strategy to bring together rich and poor. 

Upcoming news

What about Emgwenya and Entokozweni?

The ELM is currently involved in constructing hostels for families in both towns, which will soon be launched.

Bad news

The ELM is dealing with massive infrastructure and maintenance backlogs, dating back to when the four transitional local councils of Belfast, Dullstroom, Machadodorp and Waterval Boven were integrated. The mayor estimates that R40 million is needed to deal with the backlog, while just R7 million has been made available for the 2011/12 financial year. The reason for this shortfall? While Emakhazeni is geographically large, it has a small population, and since money is allocated to municipalities according to population size, this translates into less money; a situation worsened by Emakhazeni’s poor population which relies heavily on government grants - so eating up a large percentage of the budget. According to the mayor, “the way money is distributed to municipalities at the moment makes rich municipalities richer and poor municipalities, like Emakhazeni, poorer.”

So what’s the solution? Firstly, the ELM is lobbying for a review of the system used by treasury to allocate funds to municipalities. Secondly, the mayor urges members of the community to not only focus on the problems in the municipality and complain about them, but to also think about solutions and suggest alternatives. “We want people to be involved, and will take your ideas seriously; so criticise, but be constructive in your criticism,” he said. 

Who is Hamzer Ngwenya?

I’m from Emakhazeni; I was born in Waterval Boven, but have lived in Machadodorp since I was 9 years old, matriculating from Sikhulule Secondary in 1998, where my favourite subject was Geography - because of my involvement in politics, my Geography teacher kept telling me I would fail, so I had to prove him wrong! I got involved in politics from a very young age; when I was 6 years old I was recruited to the Pioneers, an ANC structure aimed at politicising youngsters. In 1993, I was elected as the first chairperson of the newly launched COSAS (Congress of South African Students) at Sikhulile Secondary, and in 1995 I was elected as branch chair of the ANC Youth League, a position I held until 2000. In that year there was a realignment of ANCYL branches, which resulted in the Witbank and Western regions joining to form the Nkangala region; to which I was elected as an executive member, a position I held until 2008, when I was elected to the provincial executive committee. 

While I’ve always been involved in politics, I haven’t always worked in politics; in fact my first job after matriculating was helping to build the road to Bambi. In 2004 I became a ward councillor after the then ward councillor, Vusi Masango, passed away, I was re-elected in 2006; which is when I became speaker of the municipality; and again in 2011, this time becoming executive mayor. 

I think education is fundamental; I got my Matric and have studied further too; I have certificates in greener governance, office management and IT and am currently enrolled for a certificate in public management. 

I’m married; I met my wife while doing Matric and we have three young children.