May 9, 2005
By Anish Abraham
GETTING to wear your boss's shoes for a day is an interesting idea. It may be a bit daunting when that boss is the mayor, but six Joburg council employees rose to the challenge.
The six, who won the "If I were mayor for a day" competition, are to be rewarded with a two-night stay at the luxury Mount Grace Hotel in the Magaliesberg. Open to council employees, entrants had to write about six things they would do if they could swop places with Executive Mayor Councillor Amos Masondo for just one day.
Winners Peter de Klerk, Jerry Mukoma, Andrew Pretorius, Rukshana Timms, Elsabe du Toit and Karabo Semanye will each be treated to an executive-style two-night stay at the hotel, with meals, a host of beauty treatments and a nature walk thrown in.
The challenge thrown down to staff was: if you were executive mayor for a day, what would you change within the six mayoral objectives, using your six senses. Masondo's six priorities are: economic development, job creation and public safety; service delivery; customer care through Batho Pele; good governance; inner city regeneration; and HIV/Aids.
Bev Swartz, the brand manager at the City's department of economic development, marketing and tourism, came up with her brainchild in 2004. "This was a form of internal marketing whereby we could get new ideas from the staff," she said. "We wanted six things they would change if they were mayor for the day - something that has not been done before in the City, but something that can be implemented."
Open to all employees of the City and its utilities, agencies and corporatised entities (UACs), the response to the competition was enthusiastic - being boss for a day is, after all, an enticing idea. Entry forms were attached to pay slips and entry boxes were easy to spot, in all departments and at the UAC offices.
"This was a very exciting competition to work on but also very challenging," Swartz said. "There was a real logistics challenge in dispatching competition elements to all the departments and depots within the UACs and regions."
Winning ideas
De Klerk, from legal services, suggested that the City hold competitions like cleanest street, cleanest block, cleanest precinct and so on. This would boost the City's regeneration activities, especially in the inner city, by persuading landlords to maintain and "take ownership of their space", he said.
Mukoma, the operations manager: committees and records for Region 5, called for the creation of more community-based projects in partnership with the UACs. Pretorius, the operations supervisor at Pikitup's Selby depot, suggested an awareness campaign to create a culture of recycling. He said that each evening the city collected about 70 tons of waste, much of which could be recycled and put to good use.
Timms, the information technology project administrator at the Revenue Shared Services Centre, suggested that service delivery be improved by extending working hours at the various People's Centres and ensuring staff were trained to perform at their best.
A rather tasty suggestion came from Du Toit, the communications officer for Regions 1 and 2, who said she would organise a cooking competition or festival for City and UAC employees. The occasion would be used to address the six mayoral objectives and build stronger ties within the City's workforce.
Semanye, the manager: sport and recreation for Region 5, suggested the City explored ways of creating a sense of community ownership and promoting a culture of volunteerism at libraries, clinics, and sport and recreation facilities.
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