Today marked the first CTMM Council meeting after the local government elections, which had been declared free and fair. Dr Gwen Ramokgopa was elected by the Council as the first female Executive Mayor. Councillor Khorombi Dau was re-elected Council Speaker, and Councillor Tebogo Mampane Komane was elected the Chief Whip.

Dr Ramokgopa is no stranger to Tshwane - she was born, bred and later married in Atteridgeville. She also served as Chairperson of the Executive Committee of the former Pretoria City Council in 1995.

Before Dr Ramokgopa delivered her inaugural speech, councillors burst into song, congratulating her. The Executive Mayor began her address by acknowledging various dignitaries from Parliament and provincial government, as well as the former Executive Mayor of Tshwane, Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa. She expressed her gratitude for the support she had received from all who were present.

The new Executive Mayor proceeded to thank all councillors for the confidence they had shown in her by electing her. She congratulated Councillors Dau and Komane on their election as Speaker and Chief Whip, respectively. Bearing in mind that we would be celebrating fifty years of the struggle of women in the country and the thirtieth anniversary of the youth uprising, the Executive Mayor urged the Council to make local government work better for the residents of Tshwane.

The Executive Mayor also outlined a five-year programme based on the election manifesto, which would be developed within the next three weeks by the Mayoral Committee along with the Council and the stakeholders. The programme would look at accelerating service delivery and improving government's housing policy, which should ensure the availability of better-quality houses closer to economic opportunities and avoid corruption in the administration of the municipal housing policy.

The five-year programme would, the Executive Mayor said, also address service delivery in the communities. It would also help with the implementation of projects, which would create jobs and generate resources to build better infrastructures, while also improving the existing ones.

The Executive Mayor stressed the importance of a plan that will ensure that there is a working relationship between all three levels of government that is conducive to realising the vision of the President's new policy - the Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa - as well as that of the Freedom Charter.

Dr Gwen Ramokgopa also spoke of how, with the support of the Council and the Municipality as a whole, she intended to ensure that the lives of the residents of Tshwane would be improved through job creation and the development of the local economy, in the process ensuring that residents exercise their democratic right to determine their own destinies.