The Ugu District Council recently elected Councillor Sikhumbuzo Issac Mqadi as the new Mayor of Ugu District Municipality. Mayor Mqadi was sworn in under oath, unopposed, before the full Council sitting of the municipality.
“The new mayor is a seasoned leader who is no stranger to the communities within Ugu District. He understands the socio-economic struggles that face communities in the district as he too hails from the rural KwaXolo community,” said France Zama, Ugu District Municipality spokesperson.
The former Ray Nkonyeni Municipality Mayor joins the municipality at a time when Ugu is recovering from the loss of former mayor, Councillor Phumlile Mthiyane, and Municipal Manager, Dr EMS Ntombela, who sadly passed on earlier this year.
“Mayor Mqadi was fortunate to serve with both as PR councillor in the district and therefore understands the municipality’s core function of improving service delivery to Ugu communities,” said Zama.
In his speech, Mayor Mqadi said that prolonged service delivery should be abolished.
“Today marks the beginning of a new journey, where our communities should be put first at all costs; where all our efforts must be driven towards improving service delivery as well as creating a conducive environment for tourism, young entrepreneurs and business people alike.”
The Mayor went on to say that this initiative requires working together, regardless of political affiliations, in order to put people’s needs first.
Mayor Mqadi, together with the Deputy Mayor, Councillor Mandla Chiya, in the upcoming days will lead a delegation of members of the Executive Committee; ward councillors and senior technical officials from Water Services to areas under Umdoni Municipality as part of ‘Operation Mbo’.
“Operation Mbo is one of the municipality’s radical response programmes aimed at dealing with water supply bottlenecks in areas across the district. And the recent visits will focus on areas under cluster one and two of Umdoni Local Municipality, where leadership will have a first-hand experience of the reported water supply challenges under these areas,” explained Zama, adding that this visit will also provide leadership with an opportunity to conduct inspections of all water infrastructure and projects which have been implemented in these areas.
“And through these visits, leadership is fully supported with all technical expertise which will be ready to be discharged towards unlocking whatever bottlenecks they encounter along the way. This programme has proven to be an effective instrument in unblocking water supply headwinds in most water supply systems where these visits have been conducted.”
