Teen hopes to be the voice of Ekurhuleni’s youth

SIX months ago, 15-year-old Sikhanyisiwe Pondwa would probably not have believed it if she was told she would be part of a watershed event that would go down in the history books of Ekurhuleni City.

The Grade 10 Global College learner was recently elected as speaker of the first ever Ekurhuleni junior city council.

History was made when the first Ekurhuleni junior council was elected at Germiston Civic Centre on August 14.

And Pondo, who lives with her family of five in Kempton Park, was part of that momentous event.

The junior council is a first of its kind in the metro in that it aims to ensure that school learners understand what democracy is about and that they take part in deliberations to ensure that children’s issues are taken into account by the municipality.

In August this year, Global College (as well as 98 other schools around Ekurhuleni) had to appoint four junior councillors as representatives of the school – and Pondwa was one of the learners elected.

From there, the learners were given a presentation at Kempton Park Primary School where it was explained what was expected of the potential junior city exco and how it would be elected.

After a lengthy voting process, Pondwa and her counterparts were then selected to fill the roles of junior speaker of the house – deputy speaker, mayor, deputy mayor, chief whip and proportional representative (PR) councillor, who would lead the first sitting of the junior council meeting.

“I decided to contest for the speaker of council because I am extremely comfortable with speaking and addressing people. And although I didn’t know much about what the position entailed, I was very eager to learn,” Pondwa explained.

Three minutes was all it took for the aspiring paediatrician to lobby for the position and to convince the junior council that she was the perfect candidate for the job.

On the same day they were elected, the juniors also had the exciting opportunity to meet the members of the official Ekurhuleni City council, including Pondwa’s senior counterpart, speaker of the house, councillor Patricia Khumalo.

“Meeting the madame speaker was really amazing. I picked up that she is a calm person, because as a speaker you have to be calm and in control, and also be able to cater for everyone, whether it be a political party perspective or personality-wise,” said Pondwa.

The school’s headmaster, Dingubuhle Ndiweni, said the school is very proud of Pondwa’s achievement.

“I am so happy for her, I’m actually short of words. For us, as a school, it shows that we have very capable learners who can compete at high levels with learners from other schools,” Ndiweni expressed.

Pondwa concluded that as the junior council, their mandate is to be the voice of the youth and to also reinforce the youth’s patriotism.

“It’s also important for the youth to know where they can raise their grievances if they have any, and the council serves as a platform that allows them to do so,” Pondwa concluded.