Ciska Jordaan resigns as GMM councillor

Ciska Jordaan, a DA councillor in Govan Mbeki Municipality, served the municipality with a resignation letter on August 22.

Jordaan’s party appointed her as a leadership development coordinator based in Cape Town and she will be responsible for training and creating content to develop public representatives.

She became active in politics in 2014 when she was only 23 years old.

Jordaan was the youngest councillor in the DA caucus in the council in 2015.

“Today, I’m proud to see more young people on the council benches. I believe that I was able to set for them a standard.

“It has been an absolute frustration trying to be accountable to the people who elected me and attempting to have services delivered to them in an environment where our municipality has deteriorated to the brink of collapse.

“However, I have found that there are angels with compassion for people in the community and in the institution who try every day against all odds to make things work.

Residents, officials, technicians and business owners who have taken hands with us as DA councillors and who are not afraid to roll up their sleeves, have made the decision to become a local government councillor worth it through and through; and she continues to instil a conviction of purpose, service and giving in my heart and mind,” said Jordaan

Besides being a mother and a wife, it has been an honour for Jordaan to serve the people of the municipality and she plans to continue to do so. She said GMM remains her home.

Jordaan said the DA’ has excellent training programmes for its public representatives, such as the young leaders’ programme which has produced some of the most progressive leaders in the country, such as Cape Town mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis.

She is excited to be part of the training programme and is looking forward to using what she had learned at GMM.

Jordaan was a proportional councillor for the DA, the Ward 25 councillor and also a Gert Sibande District councillor.

In 2016, she became the chief whip of the DA. She was the party’s caucus leader from 2018 to 2021 and was also the Mpumalanga chairperson for the association of DA councillors.

She also served as the DA Mpumalanga deputy chairperson from 2020 to 2022.

Jordaan was elected as the municipal public account committee (Mpac) chairperson earlier this year but she was later removed.

She wanted her office to be open and transparent to the public and she promoted public participation by encouraging the community to attend council meetings.

She strived to make the Mpac a community watchdog.

However, Jordaan, as the Mpac chairperson, and two other section 79 committee chairpersons were voted out of their positions at the State of the Municipal Address on May 31.

The council’s chief whip, Joseph Mtsweni, submitted a motion of no confidence against Jordaan, Encee Van Huyssteen (rules, ethics and by-laws chairperson) and Aranda Nel-Buitendag (public participation committee chairperson).

According to a notice of a motion that was submitted to the former acting municipal manager’s office, Lizzy Tshabalala, on April 13, the three chairpersons were absent without any written apology.

The ANC won by 26 votes for their removal and Freedom Front Plus, who was against the motion, only clinched two votes, while the Economic Freedom Fighters, Azanian Residents Party and African Transformation Movement councillors abstained from voting.

Jordaan went to Laerskool Goedehoop and attended Hoërskool Oosterland, but finished her high school years at Dhahran High School in Saudi Arabia when she moved over with her family.

She returned to South Africa in 2010 and studied further at the University of Pretoria where she obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Physiology, Philosophy and French.

Jordaan also obtained her honours degree in counselling psychology and has a postgraduate certificate in education.

She is currently pursuing a BA degree in political leadership and citizenship.