Interacting with People

	Interacting with People a Priority
	Ehlanzeni District Municipality Executive Mayor, Cllr Letta Shongwe made a promise during her inauguration that she would rotate council meetings among her five local municipalities, and she already did. Just a month after she had made this promise, Cllr Shongwe turned her words into action and headed to the Bushbuckridge Local Municipality where she was joined by the other Executive Mayors from the region in an extraordinary council meeting on August 4, 2011. Cllr Shongwe explained that the reason for taking her council meetings to all parts of the region was to interact with the people on the ground. “We were elected by the people. This means that we are just their servants or messengers. So it is vitally important for us to interact with them and find out what they really want from the government they have voted for. “We also want our people to know who their councillors are, while at the same time trying to promote efficient and continuous communication between government and the people,” explained Cllr Shongwe. “W e need to be guided by the people and do what we think is right for them. So we believe that taking our council meetings to the people will help us to know and understand their needs better. We also want to use this opportunity to report back to them with regards to the roll-out of services and employment opportunities, and also communicate our planned programmes,” she went on. After the meeting, Shongwe together with her executive participated in a community outreach programme held at Agincourt just outside Bushbuckridge, where community members had the opportunity to raise their concerns.