The Mayor
Our prime mission at Ulundi Municipality has always been to create an environment that seeks to improve the daily lives of our residents throughout all corners of Ulundi.
We draw inspiration from His Majesty, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who has shown through action and teachings that we must be servants of the people, as our residents entrusted us with the humbling responsibility to lead them. I am proud to say that Council, together with our administrative staff, consistently work to implement our goals of a just, prosperous, and moral society that brings dignity, safety, and economic opportunities for all in Ulundi, regardless of background or social standing.
Our hard work to make Ulundi Municipality a great place to live, invest, and visit means that we must always ensure that we are at the top of our game and consistently present ourselves to our stakeholders as we see ourselves. We have ongoing programmes to fix potholes, and damage to the roads in our communities, especially access roads in rural communities, townships, and our town. Our aim is to make Ulundi an economically thriving community that is a safe and worthy destination of choice for those who live in our community and those who want to visit and see what our Municipality has to offer.
The matric class of 2022 did us proudly; our learners showed the province as well as the rest of the country that they can compete on the same level as them, with the outstanding results they produced despite coming from a small town. Lifalethu Zikode from Masibumbane Secondary School led the achievements when he placed second nationally as a Top Physical Science Achiever. We then held a Matric Excellence Awards Ceremony and awarded our top achievers R5 000, a laptop, and a gift bag containing USB memory sticks, a power bank, and other equipment to help with their education. We also awarded the best-performing schools that achieved a 100% pass rate in Ulundi with R10,000 cheques to go towards the needs of their schools. I ran a campaign to ask staff, community members and all stakeholders to donate much-needed sanitary pads for our school girls. I am proud to say that the giving people of Ulundi exceeded my expectations and answered my call to action. Through the donations of the many good Samaritans, we were able to hand over the sanitary pads to many school girls who needed them.
Education is a master lock key that can open many doors, even for those who come from the most disadvantaged backgrounds. It is the great equalizer of society, and this is why here at Ulundi Municipality we value it and do all we can to assist our youth to pursue it. During this quarter, we also held a graduation ceremony to hand over certificates to our graduates who completed the Computer Training Course at the Ulundi Library. This was an initiative of the Municipality to upskill our residents, especially women and youth.
In our effort to be an accountable government that engages with our constituents, I, accompanied by Deputy Mayor T.G Madela, held a Breakfast with the local women and the elderly in Unit A. This was a successful engagement and got us to engage with the women both young and old, on numerous issues that affect their lives, and we discussed solutions for them. This is not our first or last engagement, as we thrive to always go back to our communities and engage with them on issues that directly impact them. The above is just a brief snapshot of the programmes we have had in this quarter. We have a plethora of initiatives that seek to improve our residents’ lives and are always implementing strategic programmes to make this a reality.