Ward 66 war room committee gets inducted
Meetings are held on the second Wednesday of every month from 2pm to 4pm at the South Durban Basin Area Based Management boardroom. All are welcome.
OVER two weeks ago, the ward 66 war room committee commenced its induction programme and has now returned, fully armed with the know-how to service to the community.
The convener, Charles Leaven, and secretary, Ayanda Njapha, recently had a sit down with the SUN to share some their insights as to their roles and what their appointments mean to the ward 66 resident.
Charles said that while the war room forms part of the councillor’s office, there are concise distinctions between the two entities. “When it comes to the ward councillor’s role in communicating with the city, whatever he does is limited to the resources and abilities of the city, whereas, the war room involves the different spheres of government, where you have your provincial and national government. So, if we can’t solve an issue at city level we can take it to the district, to provincial and then national,” he said.
As a self-confessed workaholic, Charles’ key interests are in communal issues that involve socio-economic, safety and health. He is also head of the small business portfolio and his aesthetic is to fight challenges every day for the empowerment of people. “The war room is a big agenda on the mayor’s table and there are frequent times where things on the war room agenda are addressed by the mayor. We are still learning the war room etiquette, but we’ve grasped the idea and we’re going to run with that and strongly encourage people to voice their concerns and issues.”
Ayanda is a mother of two who first got a ‘taste’ of community work as an intern for Ugu Municipality and has never looked back. “My ambition is to help people. This war room committee is a perfect platform for voicing people’s needs because we are connected with the relevant departments that will see them through,” she said. “There’s also a logbook to log all issues we come across. Every issue brought forward will need to be addressed immediately and should not take longer than three months to resolve. The more pressing issues will be dealt with accordingly and we’d like to see the community and the various stakeholders join us because we can’t do anything without them.”
“I love this community because we are diverse, it’s good interacting with everybody because of the different cultures. By having a common goal of wanting a safe neighbourhood that we can all be proud of, we will go far,” added the analytical chemistry student at Mangosuthu University of Technology.
Meetings are held on the second Wednesday of every month from 2pm to 4pm at the South Durban Basin Area Based Management boardroom. All are welcome.
To get in touch with the committee email them at ward66warroom@gmail.com or call or WhatsApp Charles on 065-810-1403 or call or WhatsApp Ayanda on 083-756-7717.
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