During the council meeting held in the council chamber on February 25 presentations were made to council. The Al-Imdaad Foundation, a non-profit humanitarian aid organisation, which originated in Estcourt, were the first to make their presentation to council.

The organisation would like to do more work for the Estcourt community and outlying areas, though in order to do so they required assistance from the municipality to identify the needy via war rooms. “We want to add help where we can and add value to the community,” said KwaZulu Natal’s Project Manager Abed Karrim. Once the request was made to council, literature was circulated, which gave an overview on the progress of the Al-imdaad Foundation Community Garden Project in Keate Street.

After the presenters concluded, councillors passed comments and made queries. The presentation was noted and a closed meeting was arranged. Operation Sukuma Sakhe (OSS) then presented to council and focused on the methods applied in the field. The presenter issued out literature to council, which focused on informing and updating council of the issues they addressed as well as the core sub-programmes, which they run.

The presentation also consisted of an introduction of the new champions to oversee and implement their policy in each ward within Umtshezi Municipality. The last to make a presentation to council was the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). The implementing Agent advised council of the key activities, the type of vacancies and the process of filling the available vacancies in preparation for the Local Government Elections in 2016 through literature, which was passed around to explain the above points and processes in detail.