Women’s Month: Ehlanzeni District Municipality’s mayor shares her vision for the next five years

Ehlanzeni District Municipality’s executive mayor and the chairperson of the South African Local Government Association (Salga) Mpumalanga, Jesta Sidell, said she is among those women who push themselves to do what has not been done before.

“We are women in leadership who are not afraid to make very hard decisions.”

During an interview with Mpumalanga News, she shared her visions and some of the plans for the next five years.
According to her, the plans include building on what has been achieved so far.

“We have introduced a new programme that deals with the Samora Machel Monument and how it is linked to a new border post that we want to open in the district, so that we can relieve the traffic flow going through the Lebombo Border Post to Mozambique.

Coming from a farm in Whiter River, her journey of 20 years in local government has not only gained her experience, but she has played various roles, including the former speaker of the former Mbombela Local Municipality, a mayor for two terms and a chairperson of Salga.

Sidell said local government is pushing a notion of having a directorate that will look into the issues of women. This will be installed within the various municipalities.

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“We want a unit led by a woman with clear policies and programme opportunities that can be created and championed for the benefits of women.

“We want to get more women into the space so that we can translate it into the administration of local government as well. Talking about women’s issues, looking into our programmes that we have as a district or province, and working through the district development model approach – we have these high-impact projects in which we would like to see women taking a lead to implement them.”

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She gave an example of a project in the City of Mbombela for which it has a memorandum of understanding with the University of Mpumalanga, that women leading in the corporative and farming sectors are to be assisted by the university in terms of deploying graduates to these small-scale farms so that they can impart skills and knowledge of producing quality produce to be part of the value chain market.

“We want to see those graduates not going to other provinces for work, but be able to grow the economy.”
Sidell said there is a lot to do, but only if they make strategic decisions, because local government alone will not do it and the private sector is needed.

She said women need to support one another because that is how she got to where she is today – by the support of other women.