POLOKWANE – “I will fight and expose corruption and fraud wherever it may occur. I will also talk to the people in my ward to hear what they want. My campaign for the 2016 local government elections has already begun.
“The people have placed their trust in me and I will do everything possible in my power to turn around and fix whatever is wrong in my ward by following the normal channels doing that.”
Roelof Lourens is one of the two new kids on the block: he won the position as ward councillor for the DA in ward 23 in the recent by-elections.
He is a seasoned councillor, having served as ward councillor in the Greater Tubatse Municipality since 2010, and promised: ” I will continue to provide good services, like I did before.”
He promised to bring the necessary changes to ward 23 and serve the residents well before the election and said he would fight corruption within the municipality and look for opportunities to create jobs, among other issues. Ward 23 was already a DA bastion, and with Lourens’ candidacy, the party increased its majority from 64% to 83%.
He was inaugurated as ward councillor and attended his first council meeting in Polokwane last week, and remarked that the speaker handled the proceedings and flow of debates well.
“But the documentation was a nightmare.” Lourens further said he was looking forward to the future as a ward councillor in Polokwane.
His ward stretches from Ladanna, and includes a part east of Nelson Mandela Road, between Grobler and Hospital Streets, a small area between Arnotha Drive, Gerrit Maritz, Gen Viljoen and Potgieter Streets, some smallholdings north of Veldspaat Street up to the Mall of the North, Palmietfontein, Thornhill, Mitchell House and Noordskool.
Problems he plans to address in his ward include old infrastructure like the water pipes in Ladanna, which time and again leave residents without water, the inadequate storm water drainage of water after it has rained, having speed humps built near Piet Hugo Primary School for the safety of the school children, to have overhead lighting installed at the parks and to do something about the roads on the smallholdings.
Lourens grew up on a farm near Amersfoort in the Ermelo district. After school he joined the permanent forces.
He did his instructors’ course in Oudtshoorn and remained in the force for 11 years before calling it quits. He later worked for Rentmeester Insurers, did some operations for the government overseas and worked in a private capacity in Baghdad in Iraq. He also worked as a business centre manager in Steelpoort and now owns his own security company. He also started an action cricket operation.
Lourens became involved in local government politics in 2010 to make a difference, and intends going to parliament in the next couple of years, “to make an even bigger difference”.
