Mayor Nenguda pledges to restore unity in Vhembe

The newly appointed executive mayor of Vhembe, Cllr Dowelani Nenguda, has pledged to restore unity.

In an exclusive interview with Limpopo Mirror, Nenguda said his priority was to “fight hard to make sure that there is stability in Vhembe”.

According to him, workers must feel free to contribute to the success of the municipality, so that people can get water.  “During election campaigns, we visited all stakeholders.  In these visits, the main cry was water, which is our main responsibility,” he said.

Nenguda says the municipality would find a solution to make sure that the community received water. “The process has already started to address to water challenges, but not all the people have water. The water problem must be addressed urgently.  Where there is a problem, we will inform our people, so that they must be updated.  On the other issues like sanitation, I think we are doing better there,” he said.

While emphasising the importance of working together with different stakeholders, Nenguda said the municipality would make sure that it prioritized the community’s needs according to the IDP.

He said the good working relationship the municipality enjoyed with traditional leaders, Sanco, faith-based organizations, alliance partners and workers would help them to succeed. “Our employees must feel free to contribute.  We can’t postpone people’s expectations.  We can’t postpone poverty.”

In his address, after his swearing in last week Friday, Nenguda said he was accepting the challenges while fully aware that the municipality had the following known challenges: poor audit opinion, serious water services challenge, negative media publicity due to institutional instability, wide-ranged perception of corruption and poor labour relations between the employer and the employees.

Nenguda said the challenges had negatively affected the confidence of the people in the leadership of the municipality. As elected leaders, he said, they had an obligation to restore the confidence of the people by ensuring that they built an administration that was corrupt free and accountable to the people of Vhembe. 

“It is time to work together and act now to address service delivery challenges.  We must all of us make sure that the state machinery works for the district's citizens,” he said.

He also urged the acting municipal manager, Ms Sylvia Ndou, and the entire management team to work hard to ensure that quality service was rendered.

In addition, he committed to developing and strengthening the local economy and promoting growth that will create an enabling environment for job creation.

He said the municipality would provide support and the required services to ensure that the Special Economic Zone became a living reality where the people of Vhembe would become active participants and beneficiaries.

Nenguda concluded his speech by thanking the different political parties. A mayoral committee will be appointed in due course, he promised.

Date:01 June 2019

By: Ndivhuwo Musetha

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