Q&A With Mayor James Nxumalo by Marlan Padayachee

Q&A
From Mayor-elect, His Worship, Councillor James Nxumalo
1 JAMES SIKHOSIPHI NXUMALO, 46-year-old.
2 I prefer to call all the residents, the citizens of our city. Citizens may be unaware that my activist-political career that has brought to the pinnacle of city hall was actually defined by the deplorable and appalling conditions labourers worked at a big-brand chicken factory. I am a trade unionist at heart. We were a lost generation and opportunities were limited. However, I would have loved to strum the guitar like George Benson or played the trumpet like Bra Hugh Masekela. I am passionate about jazz music as the people I serve. I seek solitude in soul, rhythm and blues and jazz music and seldom end a long day without watching the breaking news and popular programmes on television. If time permits, I would like to don a white martial arts suit and practice karate to gain a balance in my impending hectic schedule as the first citizen of Durban.
3 I have an appetite for traditional food, handed down by the mothers of the Zulu nation over generations of our long history and legacy in KwaZulu-Natal. But, I will not say no to the city’s favourite cuisine, the piping-hot curry in the traditional bunny-chow that has made Durban globally famous export. My popular eating house is the Spur for juicy steaks and chips and Café Fish for a harbour view lunch of seafood. I can cook up a storm with a boiled eggs dish.
4 I am very patriotic to my city and spend quality time at the world-ranked Ushaka Marine World with my family; and we shop at the Pavilion and the Gateway because the buzz at these big malls is a microcosm of our drive for economic energy and growth.
5 I recall without bitterness my disadvantaged boyhood working hard as a gardener in Westville during weekends and school holidays. I enjoyed playing football at school level.
6 Durban’s temperate, warm weather conditions, and the multicultural vibrancy of all our people who have given new meaning to the ancient African philosophy of Ubuntu (I am because of you).The city’s cosmopolitan image and nonracial mix inspires me to go the extra mile.
7 I read William Shakespeare and its timeless tales of humanity. Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom is my reference book. I am an avid listener of radio stations that talk to the masses, such as Ukhosi FM, Metro FM, Gagasi FM, the lively debates on SAfm and PMlive, and the SABC radio jazz programmes.
8 I will remain loyal to the city’s 2020 Vision to ensure that Durban achieves the African Dream by emerging as the best African city on the continent. Our cultural diversity and cross-flow of cultures and traditions makes us unique as one of the potentially progressive cities along the Indian Ocean Rim and a city that can compete in the world rankings as one of the most non-racial metropolitans of the 21st century. I would like to see all our citizens from diverse backgrounds and demographics coming together in social harmony and unity and reinforcing the spirit of our slogan, ‘One City, Many Cultures’. I would like to see much more meaningful changes in the way we do business and how we fast-track our second economy among the street-traders, vendors and small enterprises that is best epitomized within the city city and the revamped Warwick Avenue Triangle commuter and trading landmark.
9 I am getting there soon. The technological revolution is catching up with us and our information and communication technology hub at the Smartxchange is a testimony of Durban’s appetite to navigate the world’s information highway. It will be a policy decision by the city at a council meeting to consider introducing IT solutions such as Tweeting and Face book for our councilors to interact with communities and constituencies. Just watch this space.
10 Growing up in the tranquility of the rolling, green hills of Inchanga, I am a ‘berg’ person and love the heritage site of the Drakensberg Mountain where the spirit and sketches of the San people live in the caves of the rock art. Durban’s golden beaches energise me into action. I love the treasure trove of KZN’s game reserves and the Valley of a Thousand Hills is my favourite destination to switch off and enjoy my family.
11 Soccer reigns supreme in my past-time, and I spend as much time as possible watching local and international football, followed by rugby, cricket, tennis and boxing. I play soccer and practised karate as a teenager, but guess I will have to keep fit and will be kitting out soon in my soccer strip and karate suit.
12 The late anti-apartheid leader Harry Gwala who sacrificed his life on Robben Island like many of the freedom fighters. He was my inspiration and mentor who taught the values of being people-centred, loyal and honest.
13 My morning breaks early. I enjoy a cuppa of rooibos tea, black no sugar or sweeteners. I reply to all SMSes. I ferry my children to their schools, and head straight for my office around 8am. I am surrounded by loyal personal assistants who brief me about my day’s schedule, appointments and invitations for speaking and community engagements. I then switch on my personal computer and read my emails before reading the headlines and stories of the day in the English and isiZulu language newspapers.
14 I always wanted to be a lawyer, championing the defenceless and the helpless in courts. But I cut my political teeth as a youth activist and trade union organizer and hence a career in politics in a historic time-frame.
15 Humility, Charm and Good Listening.
16 Difficult to make public, but I get irritated, frustrated and disappointed with shoddiness, laziness and people who don’t respect time and are oblivious of our people’s cultural dynamics.
17 Under my watch, I want to leave a legacy of a mayoral leadership that will take the baton of my predecessors and transform Durban into Africa’s most viable, accessible, economically prosperous and socially stimulating Indian Ocean gateway city into the rest of Africa. I will strive for the neighbouring Southern African Development Community cities being the first port of call for our socio-economic drive that will literally change the lives and livelihoods of all our citizens, including citizens who were previously economically elbowed under apartheid, and the African migrants who live and work in Durban in a post-apartheid democracy. We will make our sister-city relationship with African cities work wonders and Durban must become the world’s most non-racial and non-sexist city.
18 My leadership style will be as accessible as a phone call away, if the municipal protocol allows it. All our citizens, constituencies and communities must be assured that my doors will always be open and I will be accessible to all the people, visitors, delegations, organisations that make up the multicultural tapestry of the City of Durban. I will continue to attend meetings in all communities that occupy the urban, peri-urban and rural spaces of our 100 kilometre city limits and jurisdiction. My well-rounded mayoral team is gearing to meet these challenges with civic courtesy, homegrown hospitality, world-class protocol, the culture customer care and friendliness in the city’s spirit of the letter of Batho Pele, Putting People First.
19 Since joining the new order at the city hall as a councilor and then as a Speaker of the 200-member, politically and culturally diverse city council, I have been at the coalface of the communities and constituencies the councilors serve, some under very difficult terrains and conditions, socio-economically speaking, and I would be the first to lead as the First Citizen to place communication as the key priority in how the new and the re-elected councilors engage the community with service delivery being their most important mission when they serve the new-look city council over the next five years.
20 My message focuses on a clarion call to all our citizens, regardless of race, culture, creed, colour or economic class or status, and including all spheres of business, non-governmental organisations and community-based formations, is to put the interest of Durban and its people, first and foremost, by working together in unity and social cohesion to meet the challenges of job-creation, housing for all, poverty eradication and a quest for a safer city, with progressive greening commitment ahead of Durban hosting the COP 17 Climate Change conference.
Ends