By line: Kelebogile Masemola
03 March 2022
Mr Mandla Roger Vilakazi is a ward councillor for Ward 9 Embalenhle.
He was born in Driefontein and then moved to eMbalenhle in the year 1987 where his family had rented a place.
Vilakazi’s family was evicted after Crossroad was established.
At a later stage he moved to Wellas where he further moved to extension 22 after he saw a need to move out of home and live on his own.
His political career began after his love for the African National Congress (ANC).
He joined the party as a fulltime member in 2000 after seeing the conditions people lived under in Embalenhle.
“I saw the need to be in the community structures,” he said.
He further mentioned that as a councillor, he has three (3) main concerns, which are the roads, electricity and sewer infrastructure.
“At times I feel like the municipality is too relaxed. Vilakazi urged the municipality to work hand in hand with the community by engaging physically, this way they will be able to see the day to day struggles in these communities.
“I would love to see more deserving people being employed in programs such as the EPWP as there are many people in the community who are unemployed” Vilakazi responds on the issue of unemployment.
He further stated that he would wish for the municipality to include councilors when they seek to employ people for projects that the municipality is working on to curb nepotism.
