Former Margate municipal employee publishes book
Pieter Jansen van Vuren said the working environment was different after he moved to Margate from Krugersdorp.
Pieter (Riaan) Jansen van Vuren, a former Margate resident who now lives in Cape Town, has written a book on his journey as a municipal employee.
A Municipal Road Travelled is based on his experiences after he started working at Munsieville, a township in Krugersdorp, which served a large black community.
He said the book is about how the government has evolved from back then to what it is now.
Pieter worked for local government for 30 years and spent 11 years in Margate.
He said it was difficult for him to work in a black community because he was always caught in the middle during Apartheid.
“The situation in the town was starting to get to me because I was caught in between the white people in Krugersdorp and the ANC, plus I was an official. I got dragged into politics so it became stressful.”
In spite of the challenges faced, Pieter said he grew fond of the Munsieville community and some of the book’s chapters are focused on the township.
“I came to Margate on holiday to spend some time with my wife. When I went back to work, I found a piece of paper on my desk that had a vacancy in Margate.”
He applied, but had no hope of getting the job.
“I then got the job through assessments because the interview was a scam, I lied to both the questions they asked me. They asked me if I drink a lot I said no, but I did because when I was in Munsieville I had so much stress. The second question was whether I knew anything about town planning and I said yes, which was false because back then in the townships there was no proper planning but we knew about property, but it was not formal.”
He said back then there was no formality in submitting plans to the municipality or a person coming along to check the property.
Pieter was then appointed as a Town Clerk at the Margate Borough in July 1992 until it was no longer a TLC.
He left in 2003 after it changed to Hibiscus Municipality and moved to Cape Town where he still works in the Department of Local Government as a Deputy Director.
He holds a Masters Degree in Development Studies, a BA Honnors Degree in Development Studies and a BA Political Science Degree.
The book is available at Amazon and online.
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