Bahula inaugurated new SDM Executive Mayor
Ga-Nchabeleng
The council of Sekhukhune District Municipality (SDM) has resolved to appoint Cllr Minah Bahula as the new executive mayor of the district municipality.
Bahula was elected overwhelmingly during the Special Council sitting on Friday 17 November at the Moses Mabotha Civic Hall, Ga-Nchabeleng, in the Fetakgomo Tubatse Local Municipality (FTLM).
In delivering her maiden speech, Bahula committed to the acceleration of services by uprooting corruptive elements that hinder quality services.
She said she accepts this mammoth responsibility fully awake of myriad of challenges that lie ahead in the district, especially the muddy reports of malfeasance and corruption that continue to haunt the district.
“We must combat corruption whenever it rears its ugly head. Good governance is our collective responsibility. Our people expect everyone to be accountable, responsive and transparent in the execution of services. Our people deserve better,” she said.
The new executive mayor also reminded her colleagues in council of the District Development Model’s (DDM) Presidential Imbizo held recently where residents bemoaned lack of services especially the scarcity and lack of water.
She said the DDM approach is seen as a game changer by improving coherence and impact of service delivery in communities, seeking to also align and integrate plans and budgets as one government.
“Our people are running out of patience. The immediate task is to assess failures of the already established water schemes and ailing infrastructure in the district, as well as resuscitating water committees in all the wards. It cannot be business as usual. We are going to turn things around,” insisted Bahula.
She furthered announced plans to provide all traditional authorities with boreholes to mitigate on the issue of the provision of water in the district, which was the issue that was applauded by many who were attending the inauguration.
Bahula also highlighted the long outstanding issue of the relocation of government and municipal offices to Jane Furse, urging her peers in the public service to speedily come up with tangible, workable and practical action plan to resolve it.
Other matters emphasised by Bahula included a call to collaboratively clamp down on illegal spaza shops that continue to ravage communities through trading of fake and expired goods.
She said this is a matter to be attended to by closely working with law enforcement authorities, other relevant sectors and by tightening of municipal by-laws across the district.
Bahula, as she is loved and cherished by communities in the Sekhukhune land, owing to her humbleness and charismatic and visionary leadership, succeeded Cllr Maleke Monganyetji as the executive mayor in the district, responsibility after having served almost two terms as the mayor of Makhuduthamaga Local Municipality (MLM).
Cllr Bahula, who also paid homage and respect to her predecessors, brings with her, a wealth of political administration and governance credentials, having begun her journey serving first as the councillor from the year 1998 to the year 2000, and this was during the Nebo North Transitional Council.
Her political career and astuteness was handsomely rewarded when she was elected the Speaker of Makhuduthamaga Council from 2000 to 2006, a position she was also re-elected on.
She also served in the same district as PR councillor from 2011 to 2014 and also headed the infrastructure division in Makhuduthamaga two years later, amassing more knowledge of serving communities along the way.
She concluded her acceptance speech by encouraging communities to go register to vote and check their status especially the youth, during the IEC voters’ registration weekend in order take active interest in the affairs of the hard earned democracy.
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