Pretoria - New Tshwane Roads and Transport MMC Dikeledi Selowa has vowed to use her youthful energy to bring about change in the department.
Selowa was one of the MMCs announced by Executive Mayor Randall Williams. At 29, she is the youngest member of the city executive.
After the 2016 local government elections, she took up the position as the chairperson for a Section 79 oversight committee, overseeing the work of utility services.
She said her experience gained from the oversight committee would come in handy in her new portfolio.
“As a person in a leadership position I must be able to ask for advice from experts in the field. That is what helped me as a portfolio chairperson. It is about learning and delivery for me as an incoming MMC,” Selowa said.
Her new role would afford her an opportunity to pave the way for other young people aspiring to lead in the public service sector.
“In 2016 when I became an oversight chairperson in utility services, as a young person I was thrown into the deep end. It is the same thing now, but it is also about here is the challenge and can you live up to it?
“How are you going to pave the way for other young people to (work) within the sphere of local government or any other sphere of government? I am looking forward to the challenge because it is not all about me but the path that needs to be created for other young people,” Selowa said.
Although she was excited about being part of the mayoral committee announced last Thursday, she conceded that she was a little nervous.
“I come from the technical committee doing oversight. Being in the hot seat now is a different ball game. I give myself a week to get comfortable and build on the relationship I already have with the oversight chairperson and relationships with other departments,” she said.
Her predecessor Sheila Senkubuge resigned following a sex scandal with then mayor Stevens Mokgalapa.
Selowa declined to speak about her predecessor and what transpired during her tenure.
She was also careful not to make lofty promises, saying she would reveal her specific goals in due course. But she did say her department needed to build speed humps, repair potholes, resurface roads and build new ones. Drainage systems also had to be built.
She said challenges facing the City included bus routes and whether taxis continued to comply with the Covid-19 regulations.
“We will look at roads that don’t have speed humps and should have them. We need to see how we can integrate the city and make it more affordable for residents to travel in,” Selowa said. “When it is crunch time it is crunch time. Work hard. Get done what needs to be done. I want things to be explained to me where I don’t understand. I am not afraid to ask questions, but my leadership style as a young person is the leadership style of learning,” she said.
Pretoria News