Thomas Sankara the former President of Burkina Faso argues, “You cannot carry out
fundamental change without a certain amount of madness… it comes from nonconformity,
the courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future… it took
the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. [we must] … be
one of those madmen.”

Honorable Speaker
Chief Whip and Party Leaders in Council
Honorable Councillors, Abantwana bomgquba
Officials
Distinguished guests

I stand before you this afternoon humbled by our glorious movement to be deployed as a
woman to serve the highest political office in the district municipality of Alfred Nzo. I send
words of gratitude to the Executive Mayors who have occupied this seat before me and carried
the democratic mandate forward, leading this district municipality in its quest to meet the
expectations and fulfill the aspirations of the people of Alfred Nzo.
We receive this baton fully aware that ours must be about institutionalizing the succeses of
our predesessors and in the same token however be vigilant to discard old formulas we
collectively find and know lack the edge to deliver the desired people’s aspirations.
We pray that today must forever be etched in our history not as a historic date or a mere
gathering of a council to elect an Executive Mayor, but be remembered by its substance to
bequeth to the people of Alfred Nzo a generation of madmen and women whose occupation
is to change the historical discourse of our region towards genuine development.
Honorable Speaker we assume this task fully aware that we must collectively focus on a
constant improvement of our municipality and the family of municipalities in the district. The
ANC as the leader of society has made an intervention and agreed on six pillars as key focus
areas to make local government work. We must hasten to clarify that this is not an admissiom
of the failure of local government under the ANC but a realization that all living organisms by
their nature must respond to the objective realities confronting them and if not risk extinction.
The pillars Honorable Councillors for their part are in totality about continuity and change.
They instruct us to double our effort as the district to ensure that we reduce water and
sanitation backlog in our space that we ensure that completed water schemes actually work
and amanzi ayaphuma. We must support local municipalites to meet their basic service delivey
mandate strengthen the use of IGR mechanisms to realize this noble agenda.
Sadly though, Honorable Speaker, we assume this task after the Auditor General has released
a Qualified Audit Opinion report for the year ending June 2025. As a collective we must jointly
find solutions to take us back to the years when this very municipality had a Clean Audit
Opinion. We have been given the causes for qualification we must establish the root causes,
retrace our steps and importantly move forward towards improving this audit opinion.
As a generation of madmen and women of Alfred Nzo we must ensure that we commit to
strengthening our project planning and delivery of infrastructure to be on time, within scope
and budget. Our infrastructure development must in the first instance meet the basic service
standard and support the economic development of our region.
You will agree with me distinguished guests that many commentators have warned that if we
do not make meaningful interventions in growing our local economy, strengthening a
conducive environment for job creation we are as a generation betraying the very essence of
our generational mission. We have over the past few months and having assumed
responsibility to interface with the Leadership of all Municipalities come to an observation that
the district municipality must take its rightful place to coordinate the family of municipalities.
This very gathering must be alive to the fact that by design 60% of this house is constituted
by locals and therefore a district economic development plan must influence and be influenced
by local economic plans. We must as a generation take active steps to move away from
sloganeering about growing the economy towards real steps of movement. This generation
must take active steps in locating the Alfred Nzo Development Agency as a key player in
driving economic growth in our district.
Honourable Councillors we must sharpen our instutional apparatus to deliver on the people’s
mandate and to this end we have adopted the continuity and change approach in appointing
the Mayoral Committee. I therefore appoint the following Councillors into the Mayoral
committee:
1. MMC Infrastructure Planning and Development: Cllr Kabelo Ernest Sephuhle
2. MMC Monitoring and Evaluation: Cllr Nomasomi Mshuqwana
3. MMC Disaster and Fire Services: Cllr Eunice Diko
4. MMC Budget and Treasury: Cllr Sobane Mnukwa
5. MMC Planning and Economic Development: Cllr Banele Qwayede
6. MMC Communications and Media Liason: Cllr Nophatheka Ndabeni
7. MMC Corporate Services Cllr: Ntombovuyo Msokana
8. MMC Sports, Recreation Arts and Culture: Cllr M Khuzwayo
I welcome you honorable councillors to this leadership collective and wish you success in your
responsibilities. I urge you to discharge your duties constantly being mindful that your actions
and omissions have a direct bearing on the future of the people of this region. Exercize your
thoughts and functions with care the thousands who elected us await to see change and real
steps of movement changing their plaight today while building a sustainable future for the next
generations.
I thank You,
P.T. Sobuthongo