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22 January 2021 Executive Mayor’s Speech – 1st GRDM Council Meeting of 2021

Executive Mayor’s Speech – 1st GRDM Council Meeting of 2021

Mr Speaker,

The blessing on behalf of all of us on this platform, is that we have made into 2021.

I know that we had an extremely difficult 2020. And hopefully Mr Speaker and everybody on this platform and all the Garden Routers, it is in our hands to make this a better year. We know what is required from us and I am mentioning this, as also alluded by the Speaker, is that Covid-19 has hit us very hard. Hard in a sense that, we have lost loved ones. We have lost prominent South Africans and leaders of the country. We have lost staff members and we are still sitting with many active cases Mr Speaker and hopefully, as I am praying here, is that we really survive this, by means of changing our behaviour.

Mr Speaker, we know that this is the first meeting of the new year and we are still sitting with many challenges and we are well-known for not backing down on challenges. Some of the challenges Mr Speaker, is the fact that there are a lot of projects that we need to roll out this year. One being, the regional landfill site – we know what happened with the project. Therefore it is something that needs to be completed, because it becomes another pandemic in waiting, to fail on it. The good news Speaker is that with all the efforts that we have put into this project, people have taken note – the European Union has made contact with us in terms of trying to partner with us in this regard. We also know that the University of Kwazulu-Natal and the University of Crete also contacted us. This is just an indication that we are really trying the best we can and with all of this on our table and the participation of Council and officials, we will make this work.

Also Mr Speaker, it has being coming a long way that we have being negotiated a regional foodbank. Although there are still a lot of scepticism around, but once again we are not going to sit back and fold our arms – we as the GRDM has started the initiative and I will make time very soon to have a look at the operations at the Food Pantry. We have dealt with this at the District Coordinating Forum (DCF), but we will take it back to the DCF, now that it is operational so that all the Mayors and Municipal Managers and relevant Officials can experience this first hand. Thank you to the partners, thank you to those who have donated up to now and those that still plan to donate. We really appreciate this, because it really makes a difference in the lives of the people. Because things are different Mr Speaker, we now also need to do things differently, we now need to put livelihoods and communities (peoples’ dignities) first.

Lastly, allow me to welcome the two councillors, Cllr Ndumiso and Cllr Ruiters. As other speakers have indicated, it is indeed a learning college that we have stepped in, in terms of how we do things politically and administratively and I am sure that they will enjoy it.

I thank you.