Unflappable Nomonde is used to handling a crisis or two

Nomonde Nzimakwe is the calm and collected voice the Courier hears when the newspaper calls for yet another comment or update on the water crisis in the district.
During the severe drought over the past two years which was accompanied by water outages in Dundee, Glencoe and Nquthu, Nomonde’s number was on the Courier’s ‘speed dial’ list. Seemingly unflappable, Nomonde handles queries in her stride, after hours and over weekends. That is the passion for the Communications Manager at the Umzinyathi District Municipality.
She has a simple philosophy: “Always have dreams and never give up. Educate yourself and reach for your dreams no matter how big you may think they are.” Born and raised in Umlazi, Durban, Nomonde studied Public Relations at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) and she is currently studying communication science through UNISA.
Nomonde may be considered young, but she is quite an ambitious woman. She arrived in Dundee in 2006 when she was transferred from King Edward Hospital (in Durban) to Dundee Hospital. Nomonde worked at the hospital as a public relations officer.
It was there where she fell in love with the community the hospital served. In 2008, she left to take up the communications post at the Umzinyathi District Municipality.

Although she works in a fast-paced department where one has to be always innovative and keep up with technology, Nomonde has never had a ‘traumatising incident’ in her life
“I left because I wanted to venture into a different field of my work, I wanted to develop myself and to achieve financial growth,” Nomonde told the Courier.
Her family, especially her mother, has played a significant role in her success. “My mother has never left my side. She pushed me when I graduated. When I was unemployed, she got me my first job even though I volunteered. Later, I was hired as an intern at King Edward and I will forever be grateful to my mother. I owe her my success,” she added.
A typical day in the office for her is starting with coffee, checking emails, checking all the municipal social media sites and, of course, attending meetings. “We have to keep up with the news especially since we work with water resources. The drought has kept us on our toes,” said Nomonde. “We deal with the community and people always complain and I have to deal with people’s attitudes and juggle personalities.”
The district receives numerous complaints a day and when those come through Nomonde and her team, they have to liaise with the relevant departments to sort out them out. “I work with two communication officers and we recently got an intern from DUT, who will be with us for six months,” she explained.
Although she works in a fast-paced department where one has to be always innovative and keep up with technology, Nomonde has never had a ‘traumatising incident’ in her life. ” I don’t know if this counts as traumatic, but once things got out of hand at Msinga during one of our IDP roadshows. Things turned violent, but luckily the police stepped in and assisted, but that was slightly traumatising for me. My message to the readers, especially little girls, is never think dreaming big isn’t for you. Go to school and dream the impossible dream then work hard towards achieving it.”