Mr Keys says thank you

Sir,
I wish to express my gratitude for the honour of representing the people initially of Amajuba and Endumeni, and latterly of Umzinyathi, in the provincial parliament for the past eight years.

After relocating from Pietermaritzburg to Dundee in 2006 I have experienced the commitment of the people to make Amajuba and Umzinyathi a better place for all to live in and improve the quality of life for everybody.

With all the challenges facing the community there was always the core of dedicated people who would not count the cost of contributing to improving the lives of our people. Indeed there were difficult times which involved issues of corruption and nepotism, crime and violence, resulting in the deaths of ordinary people and of their local government public representatives, poverty and high unemployment, poor service delivery from many government departments, ‘tenderpreneurs’ intent on self-enrichment at the cost of delivery to our people, manipulation and abuse of power in our Councils in the district, and many other difficulties.

Those councillors who remained committed to the call to serve the community rather than enriching themselves have been a source of inspiration to me over the years, and I congratulate these councillors for their dedication and selfless efforts. 
The team effort between the few DA councillors and myself as a member of the provincial parliament witnessed a number of issues being resolved for the betterment of governance in our district. This is not to say that all the issues were resolved satisfactorily, or at all, but progress was made on a number of fronts.

I retire as a public representative with fond memories of Dundee, Nquthu, Newcastle, and in truth all the areas that made up my constituency. 
I entered public office representing the values of justice, liberal democracy and a federal system of government as a DP and later a DA MPP. It is unfortunate that the commitment to a federal system of government and a liberal philosophy have been seriously compromised by the present-day DA to the extent that I could not present myself for re-election at the May general elections. Umzinyathi will now be represented by my previous colleague, Mergan Chetty MP, a member of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), and I wish him all the success in taking up the critical issues in the district to assist the people in striving to make it a place our residents can be proud of.

Again, a sincere vote of thanks to all that made my term of office a meaningful and fulfilling experience, especially councillors Raubenheimer, Adam, Mfeka (Endumeni), Bedassi (Umzinyathi), Zwane (Nquthu), Buss (Umvoti), Mdluli (Endumeni), Vorster and Radebe (Newcastle), and to the MEC of Local Government, Nomusa Dube MPP for her assistance when I called on her. The number of people who have contributed to the well-being of Endumeni are too numerous to mention, but people like Kevin Burge, Mike Lotter, Richard Cattlett, Mzwake Sithebe, Rogers Mhlongo, are some of the shining lights in our community and I thank them for their selfless commitment.

Ni sala kahle nonke
Radley Keys