Deputy mayor hits road running
The new deputy mayor of Tshwane is an astute politician and academic who is very much focused on helping vulnerable residents but also on executing the capital expenditure budget.
For Tshwane’s first official deputy mayor, Dr. Nasiphi Moya, it is business as usual despite facing a fraud investigation.
She has repaid the R10 000 she was accused of defrauding the metro of four years ago when she submitted a travel claim for a trip that was cancelled.
For Moya there is much work to be done in her portfolios of economic and social development.
This alumna of the University of Cape Town as well as the University of the Western Cape, is also the chairperson of the subcommittee of the mayoral management committee members.
Moya has a Ph.D in political science and did her M.Phil in public policy and administration.
Despite her fruitful academic pursuits, she has an interest in developing communities and the residents of Tshwane in practical ways.
“I want to fix infrastructure. As I will be managing the capital budget programme, I can turn my attention to exactly that. I also, on the other hand, want to make life in Tshwane more bearable for its most vulnerable citizens,” said the sprightly and friendly Moya.
It bothers her that residents of Tshwane often do not have the means to help themselves.
“I will be taking responsibility of projects for the indigent, homeless individuals and early education centres,” emphasised Moya.
She will, as an immediate project, see to the homeless crisis in the overcrowded facility in Struben Street where more than 500 people are staying in a facility was designed for 300.
Part of her strategy will be to take communication about service delivery and services to the residents and not to always expect them to reach out to the metro themselves.
“I want to take the municipal officials to where the people are,” said Moya.
Her strategy for the execution of the capital programme and budget of the metro will link statistics to action.
At present only 11% of the metro’s 175 capital expenditure projects have reached their milestones, according to Moya.
“I will keep my eye on these projects and, with heads of department, see to it that the money budgeted for will be spent on these projects,” said Moya. “It is often all about sorting out bottlenecks.”
A project that she is excited about is the metro’s EPWP programme through which 2 500 candidates will be placed in work programmes of the metro.
The EPWP is a social development initiative aligned to the national government’s short- to medium-term job creation and skills development imperatives.
Moya said successful candidates will from March 1 be placed in jobs on the operational side with a special focus on cleaning up the environment.
“We need to make sure day by day that the city is beautified,” she said.
Growing up in a village outside Umtata in the Eastern Cape, Moya said she often had to help her mother, Naniwe and father, Pitilou Moya collect debt for their various businesses.
She believes this will stand her in good stead when she needs to turn her attention to mayor Cilliers Brink’s most important priority, to get the metro solvent again.
“The mayor’s first priority is revenue generation and also to provide residents with basic delivery services. It is a focus I will support and help him with,” said Moya.
Some of her immediate plans include giving Tshwane residents a say in their sports facilities.
“Residents love their facilities like stadiums. We need to investigate the best way to retain and maintain these facilities for them. If the metro cannot deliver these services, we must find out which institutions or individuals might be willing to work with us and look towards partnerships for these facilities,” said Moya.
As a former learner of the primary school in her village, Mpikwane, and of Zisukhanyo Secondary School in Cape Town, she is a strong activist for the role of libraries in education.
“I would like to speak to school principals and make them aware of our public libraries and the services available to learners,” said the former chief of staff in the mayor’s office.
An astute politician and member of ActionSA, Moya sees her role in the metro’s ruling coalition as that of “getting all councillors behind me”.
“We need each other to take this city forward,” she said.
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