City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Management, Alderman Grant Twigg hailed the teams on the ground as active agents of change whose presence in society is leaving an incredible mark.

‘With the team on the ground, we are positive that they have made big strides to improve services to residents and to involve them in projects in their respective areas. We often find challenges in communities that hinder project implementation. This is a fitting strategy to address this situation,’ said Alderman Twigg.

Currently, a total of 207 community engagements have taken place and have been accompanied by various multi-departmental projects within the city.

The primary role of the CDE Officers is to play a facilitation role between the City and communities with regard to service delivery issues in their areas,

Some of the engagement projects and highlights include road closures, renaming of streets, Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) interventions, erection of new centres, engagements on vandalism of recreational activities, new housing developments, upgrading of public housing as well as engaging informal settlements on relocations.

The officers’ other areas of interventions include enforcing the City’s by-laws sharing information on leasing of council properties and spatial district plans. They also educate and raise awareness on illegal dumping, ward outreach programmes and the basket of services that takes service delivery to the doorstep of residents.

‘After this project, the officers are definitely skilled to become more employable in government and in non-governmental organisations as well as participate in social programmes in the corporate and private sector.

‘Residents are also now more aware of the City’s basket of services and projects in their area and across the City,’ said Alderman Twigg.

All officers employed completed the basic training in Life Skills, Facilitation Training (which includes Communication skills) and Problem Solving. 

With the assistance of Area Practitioners and the Public Participation unit, they are currently applying their knowledge by facilitating local interventions.

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