The newly elected whip of the council, Pelisa Nkunjana, brings extensive experience in public service, policy development, and strategic leadership.
Nkunjana assumes the role of the whip of the council following the appointment of Ald Jongizizwe Dlabathi as the finance MMC.
She was elected unopposed on September 13 and was sworn in on September 16.
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Her appointment is significant as since the amalgamation of the municipal town councils to a metropolitan in 2000, the first time that a female councillor occupies this seat.
Born in Daveyton in a family of activists and comrades, her rich political influence got her into the political space at a young age.
Her journey in politics started early when she started participating in school politics.
She had responsibilities that shaped her as the secretary of the Student Representatives Committee (SRC), and later the former branch secretary of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) in Etwatwa, former regional secretary of ANCYL in Ekurhuleni between the years 2001 to 2002, provincial secretary of the ANCYL in Gauteng.
She also served on the national executive committee of the ANCYL between 2008 and 2012.
As a product of community activism, she also served as a ward committee member of Ward 65 before being elected as councillor of Ward 66; the first ward councillor of the ward after the demarcation process.
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From that period till now, she served the community of Ekurhuleni as a public representative in several portfolios.
She is a former MMC for Roads and Stormwater, former MMC for Cooperate and Shared Services, and former MMC for Transport Planning. She played a critical role in driving the separation of powers model when she was the MMC for Cooperate and Shared Services, a model now used as a benchmark by other municipalities in South Africa.
As one of the longest-serving councillors, she is not new in the legislature department as she has served as the chairperson in the section 79 committees, inclusive of Gender, Children, Youth and People with Disability Committee (GCYD), Human Settlement, Infrastructure, and before she was elected as the whip of the council, she was the section 79 committee chairperson for finance.
Nkunjana holds several qualifications from higher institutions of learning, including two master’s degrees – International Relations and Diplomacy of Cumbria in the United Kingdom and Public Management from Regenesyses Business School.
The whip also has the talent as an author. She has written a book Right to be a Woman, a book that advocates for the rights of women in Africa and supports global efforts towards achieving gender equality and women empowerment.
