It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it.
It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it. Being a city manager and running the day-to-day realities of a metro that’s got to service millions of people from diverse backgrounds and need is not easy.
You’re in the firing line of critics all the time, at the butt end of mayoral policy sometimes, and the job is never done. From potholes through to balancing the books when funding is like hens’ teeth, outgoing Ekurhuleni city manager Imogen Mashazi said, while she never thought she’d end up as city manager, it was the culmination of years of rewarding public service.
First job
And while she’s the first person to admit that there are very real challenges that the city faces, she’s just as vocal about its achievements.
Thirty years ago, Ekurhuleni did not exist. It was part of Joburg, which was in the PWV (Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging), later becoming Gauteng. Joburg was chopped up, and the East Rand was shaped out of the new democratic order.
This was where she landed her first job in the municipality. Mashazi was a qualified nurse and already had a reputation for getting her hands dirty in Soweto, at Baragwanath hospital, improving conditions for both patients and staff.
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Achievements
By the early 2000s, she was director of primary health care and later director of health and social development. She led a campaign against tuberculosis by monitoring clinics and digging out cases where registers lay untouched and patients were not being treated.
“We ended up increasing the treatment rate above the national level, north of 80%,” she said. Under her watch, Ekurhuleni built more than 80 clinics, all designed to provide comprehensive services. Patients could receive curative and rehabilitative treatment, counselling from on-site social workers and preventative care, all in one place.
Good governance
Her eye for detail and insistence on good governance saw her climb the local government ladder further. By 2016, Mashazi was appointed city manager, the first woman to hold the post.
“When I came in, the mayor had a 10-point plan. We electrified informal settlements, built reservoirs and new water networks, increased the waste disposal fleet, built fire stations, and hired more police officers. We grew the metro police service from 150 to over 1 000,” she said.
Growing up
Born in Atteridgeville, Pretoria, she moved to Soweto when her father was promoted at work. School was disrupted during the 1976 student uprisings.
“We stayed home for two years because of the riots. Fortunately, I was a hard worker, and I was promoted,” she said, skipping grades because of her academic performance Her love of people prompted her to pursue nursing, and she landed a job at Baragwanath hospital.
There, she created a pioneering programme where nurses were trained to assess patients and prescribe medication. It was the start of a career defined by grit and determination as well as a relentless pursuit of achievement.
Nursing
She helped launch clinics in Orange Farm and other underserved communities at a time when local authorities provided only immunisations and preventive services. She remembers the challenges during the early days of her career when black women were not taken seriously and apartheid restrictions extended into municipal clinics.
Black nurses were not allowed to use the staff toilets when collecting medical supplies at designated white-people’s clinics. Her performance got her promoted, senior to some of her white colleagues, at a time when it may have been a bitter pill to swallow for some.
“I had to change everything and transform the area because I was the boss,” she said. She secured outside support from larger corporates to turn an abandoned police station into a clinic and fought for black staff to have equal rights in the workplace. Fast forward to her near decade as city manager, she said governance remained her biggest triumph.
“During my tenure, we never approved any expenditure that was irregular. We never allowed deviations that did not comply with legislation. I told them, if you want to do something, you must do it properly,” she said.
The future
For her, clean audits were not a bonus but a basic requirement of serving the public. The challenges in local government, she said, remained plentiful. Covid exposed the weakness of local government funding, as municipalities received no bailouts while state-owned entities did.
Despite retiring, Mashazi wants to launch a foundation to support women’s empowerment, particularly women in uniform who face harassment and limited opportunities.
“When I came here, women were only at superintendent level. Today, some have master’s degrees and are directors. I want to build on that,” she said. She is also writing articles, consulting and helping municipalities improve governance.
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