Bulawayo City Councillor Edward Ndlovu of Ward 25: A man of action

Written by Ntando Sibanda - ZDDT Reporter Friday, 13 January 2012 15:24

Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: One of the major reasons people elect community leaders into positions of authority is that they expect excellent service delivery and adequate representation. Providentially for Ward 25 (Nketa 9) residents, their Councillor, Edward Ndlovu, is the epitome of powerful representation.

Cllr Ndlovu is known in his Ward for being highly organised and assertive in achieving development in the community he proudly serves. He has not only proved to be a good leader, but also a faithful servant of the people, as he is always more than keen to address their needs wherever possible.

Having worked for the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) since 1978, the 54-year-old father of three has over the years learnt and mastered the practice of both leading and serving people in a state-of-the-art manner. The numerous training sessions and courses that he has attended in his professional career, which has seen him rise through the ranks from being a general hand to being a Carriage and Wagon Examiner in the Mechanical Workshops of NRZ, had a bearing in moulding him into the reliable and formidable community head he is today.

“Fortunately for me, I have been continually subjected to training that including supervising other workers and so forth here at NRZ; hence when I was elected as Councillor the trainings we were given came as refresher courses to me.

I am also an assistant foreman at work, which has made it easy for me to do things like administration, problem solving, supervisory skills and communication skills” he said.
 
Since his election into office in the 2008 general elections, Cllr Ndlovu has exhibited unselfish commitment and determination in bringing positive development to Ward 25. He has gone an extra mile by establishing beneficial synergies with relevant entities in a bid to achieve development in his community.

“I am working closely with my MP and together we have managed to utilise the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) to bring considerable development into the Ward. For instance, we have bought laboratory equipment worth US$5 000 for Maranatha Secondary School, we managed to repair 308 chairs and buy 130 more for Mgiqika Primary School. In Manondwane Primary School we bought 220 treated gum poles for fencing and so on. We have even built a pedestrian bridge in the ward with the hope of building another very soon,” said Cllr Ndlovu.

In his tenure of office as Councillor, Cllr Ndlovu has managed to fully utilise his skills and has launched and established a number of action groups that deal with a plethora of issues affecting this community. When he was elected in 2008, he quickly organised water committees that sought to look into the alleviation of water woes, which plagued the country in that period.

“When I got into office, we had 18 boreholes that had been donated by World Vision and had been lying idle. I quickly came up with the idea of Water Committees, which were trained by the Churches in Bulawayo to properly look after the boreholes. With the assistance of Churches in Bulawayo we fixed five of the boreholes, after which we introduced nutrition gardens in the ward,” he said.

Having been introduced to ZDDT by the Member of Parliament for Nketa, Honourable Seiso Moyo which includes his ward, Councillor Ndlovu immediately established and grew a strong relation resulting in the Trust establishing more Nutritional gardens in his Ward.

“We have a total of 8 gardens in Ward 25. These gardens have benefited over 843 people at one point in time,” said Cllr Ndlovu.

The Councillor has also participated in various other ZDDT Programmes such as training in leadership and conflict management. One initiative of note however, is the SEBENZELA/Work for … Programme,which, besides affording Councillors and C.A.T.s the relevant training, provides them with tools and materials for clean-up campaigns, while also assisting with implementing the exercises. Cllr Ndlovu’s ward has been a beneficiary of the programme. Under this initiative, the Councillor has led residents in several clean-up campaigns covering his area.

Despite handling all this business side of his office and professional work in an admirable manner, Cllr Ndlovu still finds time to accommodate social issues that his community members bring for clarification and intervention. Not only does he take time in the evenings to deal with domestic issues from the people, he also manages to deal with them amicably leaving all the interested parties satisfied.

“Time management is hard but I have a schedule that I write in my diary. People come in the evenings and they bring all sorts of issues and I even refer some of them to the police as they will be beyond my jurisdiction. However, I have managed to solve a lot of domestic disputes. Being a Councillor should be a full time job because he/she is a facilitator and arbitrator in the community,” he said.