Remembering the mayor of Ugu

Ugu District Municipality mayor, Phumlile Mthiyane was buried at her Izingolweni home on Sunday.
High profile politicians such as eThekwini Municipality mayor, Mxolisi Kaunda, ANC eThekwini regional chairperson, Zandile Gumede, Member of the National Assembly for the Inkatha Freedom Party, Mkhuleko Hlengwa, Treasury MEC Peggy Nkonyeni, Cogta MEC Sihle Zikala, and others attended Mthiyane’s funeral service held at the Ugu Sports and Leisure Centre.
Also, a memorial service was held for the mayor on Thursday last week at the Ugu Sports and Leisure Centre, and the ceremony was attended by the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, Nomusa Dube-Ncube.
The Premier said both the late mayor and the municipal manager (Elliot Ntombela) had been central cogs in implementing programmes to resolve the water challenges in Ugu District and were leading figures in the water war room that worked daily to effect progress.

“We were in Ugu in the latter part of 2022 with the National Council of Provinces and President Cyril Ramaphosa. The mayor and the municipal manager took the concerns raised by the community around water issues to heart. They worked daily to resolve Ugu’s water issues in order to grow the economy and help the district to recover. The district led by mayor Mthiyane and municipal manager Ntombela had seen a high level of stability and steady progress in a number of areas. These include facilitating transition and recovery after the advent of Covid-19 and leading the district as we together with national government sought to resolve the water crisis in Ugu. They also worked hard with stakeholders to drive tourism into Ugu, and in the process drove economic recovery in the district,” said Dube-Ncube.
She added for the festive season they received a report which indicates that the water challenges in Ugu are receiving priority attention.

“Even though the situation is far from being ideal, we are pleased to note that there were many days of access to water than before. This was due to various interventions such as the refurbishment of pump stations to ensure efficient pumping of water in the different systems, successful construction of production boreholes in areas that did not have access to water services, increasing the number of water tankers to provide relief where there are supply interruptions, and replacement of ageing infrastructure are beginning to show positive results,” she said.
She added that they are still expecting more from Mthiyane’s leadership.
Dube-Ncube said as women they have suffered a great loss, adding that Mthiyane was a rising star in the ANC who was certainly destined to go far in life, either as a politician or in any other capacity.
“The studious Michael Ntombela was the epitome of what civil servants should be – constant learning and self improvement as a general approach so we can improve the way we do our work and deliver services. To the families and children, we pass our deepest condolences. May God guide and protect you always,” she said.

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