Veteran DA councillor Marian Nieuwoudt was elected chairwoman of Sub-council 2 at its inaugural meeting.
Born in Johannesburg in 1957, Ms Nieuwoudt has been a councillor since the first local government elections in 1995.
Her election to the hot seat on Wednesday February 16 adds another feather in her cap as a senior DA councillor as she previously served in the mayoral committee.
Ms Nieuwoudt, who studied social work at Potchefstroom University, says her administration will focus its term on alleviating poverty, eradicating lawlessness, building new community facilities and infrastructure, and the management of taxis, among other priorities.
A devout Christian and long-time resident of Brackenfell, Ms Nieuwoudt says Sub-council 21 areas are among the fastest growing in the city, but the ageing infrastructure faces pressures.
Her short- and long-term plans include forging relationships of goodwill among the sub-council’s residents, building on education, caring for the environment, overseeing the stimulation of economic growth and ensuring the budget for services is spent fairly.
The former mayoral committee member for spatial planning and environment says it’s her personal goal to enable Sub-council 2 councillors to be the best public servants, well versed in council processes.
“I have a firm belief in God’s calling to love and help all people. We can only call ourselves human when we are together and involved to the betterment of all,” she says of her love for her job.
Ms Nieuwoudt describes serving as Ward 8 councillor – which encompasses Brackenfell and parts of Kuils River – as energising.
“The success that we experienced in economic growth through having a vibrant property market illustrates to me that if we work together, we achieve collectively,” she says of Brackenfell’s booming property market.
Ms Nieuwoudt says she loves being a ward councillor because it enables her to influence policy.
Asked if she would consider another term as councillor, she says: “In politics you learn to appreciate each opportunity and each day that you have it. I believe very strongly that politics, as we know it now, is changing. Depending on the changing tide, I will make a new decision.”
Quizzed on her political ideology, she says: “I believe that liberalism affords me the platform to be the best me with my founded values as a Christian. A group can never decide my personal values, but no man is an island and democracy is a structured way to respect each other.”