Limpopo councillors being trained to deliver ‘five-star services’

The Limpopo government has urged the new crop of councillors elected into office during the recent local government elections to use education to fight the deadly Covid-19 variant Omicron, and improve people’s lives and the economy.

This was the message given by Limpopo MEC for cooperative governance, human settlement and traditional affairs, Basikopo Makamu, to councillors during an induction programme at the 2Ten Hotel outside Thohoyandou on Monday.

The programme, developed with the South African Local Government Association, will last for five days, and will be attended by councillors from 22 local and five district Limpopo municipalities.

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The training, according to Makamu, is aimed at training councillors in an endeavour to deliver five-star services to communities.

“You will attend conferences, seminars, workshops and exposure visits as part of your ongoing capacity building.

“We expect you to be experts at the end of the council term who can easily move into administration, lecture in universities and write books on local government.

“We want you to become commentators and analysts in local government and become consultants on local government.

“In light of this, we would like you to pursue your personal studies to increase your career prospects. The world is becoming complex and needs high-level skills to navigate,” he said.

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Makamu made an example of one of the province’s MECs, who just scored one of the highest qualifications in the country, while delivering basic services to the people of Limpopo.

“Our very own MEC, MEC Namane Dickson Masemola, has shown us that you can be super busy and still score a PhD. Be like him and make education fashionable,” said Makamu to loud virtual cheers from the elated councillors.

Makamu further said educated councillors could do more to help government fight the scourge of Covid-19.

“We go into the festive season as South African scientists just detected a new Covid-19 variant called Omicron.

“This new variant calls for maximum vigilance from all South Africans. We all need to continue doing what we have been taught to do in an effort to beat Covid.

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“We need to help the community out there about the importance of sanitising, wearing masks in public and social distancing. I know we can rely on you to deliver the message of this new variant to communities across the province.

“As we educate communities on the new variant, let us further encourage them to vaccinate,” he said.

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