Umjindi municipality receives accolades
After being the second best in the Ehlanzeni region for two years the local Aids council finally won first place.
After eluding them for two successive years, Umjindi Municipality was finally honoured as the best performing municipality in the Ehlanzeni region during the fourth District Aids Council Lekgotla Awards, held at Nutting Guest House last Thursday.
Umjindi HIV/Aids coordinator, Olga Nkosi attended together with the municipal manager, Pat Msibi and the chief for traffic, Stanley Nkabindze. Close to tears, Nkosi said the fight against the disease was her passion. “When I lost my sister and brother-in law to this disease, I told myself that it will never defeat us,” said Nkosi.
After being the second best in the Ehlanzeni region for two years the local Aids council finally won first place.
They managed this feat without any financial budget. “I would like to dedicate these awards to everyone who is fighting against the scourge dieses. Had it not been for our partners we are working with, we would not have achieve this,” said Nkosi.
She appealed to the municipalities within the Ehlanzeni to allocate in their budgets funds to fight Aids.
Municipalities within Ehlanzeni include Umjindi, Nkomazi, Thaba Chewe, Bushbuckridge and Mbombela.
Umjindi also received three other individual awards. The executive mayor, Lazaros Mashaba was awarded a trophy fpr being the best performing mayor in the fight against HIV/Aids in Ehlanzeni.
The ambassador award for HIV/Aids for Umjindi went to Lindiwe Ripinga. Ripinga was diagnosed HIV positive in 1987 and has been living a healthy life since then. She was among the first people to have received antiretrovirals.
