Outgoing City Speaker thanks and celebrates Mandela Day with the elderly

The outgoing Speaker of the Joburg City Council legislature bade farewell to her home and Alex’s senior citizens at a breakfast and lunch dialogue, where she also thanked them for their wise counsel during her tenure.

Connie Bapela recently ended her tenure at the helm of Council’s governance after a five-year term from 2011 to 2015. She will be replaced by a new leadership that will emerge after the 3 August municipal elections.

Bapela also used the occasion to usher in the Mandela Day celebration which is commemorated annually on 18 July countrywide and globally. She said similar dialogues with various stakeholders were held regularly in all regions as part of her public participation mandate.

In this instance, it was with the elderly as the city’s repository of wisdom and guidance. It was befitting to host the Mandela celebrations with them as most of them had experienced the injustices and challenges of the past – just like Mandela and others of their age did, resulting in the struggle for emancipation through the vote that brought a victorious constitutional democracy which should be celebrated and protected through voting at the coming municipal elections, she said.

Bapela also credited the elderly for sheltering those on the run from the apartheid police, as well as supporting the struggle activities of her age group during her school days, saying it had helped mould them into credible leaders for the various tasks of transformation and development in the community and City.

She urged them not to abandon the ongoing struggle when faced with current challenges which the City would continue to address. She advised them to choose councillors wisely and remember that they need leaders with wisdom and humility.

Neo Chaka of the Moral Regeneration Movement urged the elderly to help stop the youths’ apathy towards the elections. He encouraged the participants to teach them the importance of the struggle which had brought change and democracy.

He also urged them to pass on positive life values as this would help stop crime, carnage and rivalries within and among the various parties – which sometimes turned violent during elections.

Chaka also asked them to advise their children not to spoil their votes (which is their right), but to rather select leaders with positive attitudes who will continue the legacy of the struggle and consolidate democracy and development.

He also challenged churches that discouraged voting, saying this denied their members an opportunity to shape the course of their country. “Any abstaining and negative incidents towards the elections will be an abandonment of the values and purposes for which others died in the struggle,” Chaka concluded.