Mokgalapa ministers to Tshwane residents
Pastor’s son vows to speed up delivery
When Stevens Mokgalapa was asked in high school what he wanted to be when he grew up, he told his teacher he wanted to be a king.
A “king” Mokgalapa would eventually become, albeit in politics, by leading the country’s capital city decades after expressing his wishes. Mokgalapa, 42, ascended to the throne as the new mayor of Tshwane last week, replacing Solly Msimanga, who is campaigning to be Gauteng premier.
After being sworn in, Mokgalapa went to receive a memorandum of demands from the Kanana community. “It’s been busy. Meetings after meetings,” he said describing his first few days. His office on the second floor of the new Tshwane House provides a panoramic view of the Union Buildings, the country’s seat of power. The interview with Mokgalapa began with him tracing his roots in Winterveldt, north of Pretoria.
A soft-spoken man, Mokgalapa is the last born of six children. His father worked as a clerk at Old Mutual and his mother was an office assistant. His father was also a pastor at the Presbyterian Church, as was his grandfather, Abie Mokgalapa, who helped build the church in which Mokgalapa was baptised in. Mokgalapa’s family expected him to continue on that path but he had other ideas of serving the people. After finishing matric at Mabopane High School in 1994, Mokgalapa went to the University of Pretoria to study political science.
He had initially wanted to study geology but he fell short of the required points for admission into that course. In 1999, Mokgalapa enrolled for an honours degree in political science.
It was the same year that he joined the then Democratic Party, led by Tony Leon, while he was staying in a flat in Arcadia as a student. Mokgalapa claims he founded the first black branch of the party. “It was not easy at that time because everybody had hope in th e country. “Everybody thought the ANC was the alpha and omega. I started the branch with my wife. At that time, we were still boyfriend and girlfriend,” he said. Mokgalapa later became a ward councillor in the City of Tshwane.
As a councillor, he won the Bontle ke Botho award three times for having the cleanest ward in Gauteng.
In 2006, he became a PR councillor and three years later, he made the trek to parliament in Cape Town. Mokgalapa said the experience in parliament has helped him have a deeper understanding of politics and governance. “Parliament teaches you about oversight. One problem of local government is that there is no oversight here. “Local government is highly regulated in terms of legislation but lacks oversight … I don’t understand why our committees are not open to the public.
“I see no reason why journalists should not be allowed into oversight committees. Opening these committees would help with accountability and inform the public.” Mokgalapa has inherited a city marred by conflict, including deteriorating relations between his predecessor Msimanga and city manager Moeketsi Mosola, resulting in stifled service delivery. “What I have learned over the last three days is the bureaucracy and the red tape in local government … It is a cumbersome process. I was told that if there are investors who want to build a 100-storey building, I might not cut the ribbon myself because of the process.”
He takes his job as a continuation of what his father and grandfather did – ministering to people. “What we do is ministry. It is not restricted to only preaching. Being in office is ministry because you take decisions that change people’s lives for the better. In the main, that is what God wants.”
Mokgalapa married his university sweetheart and they have two children.
He admits that he is not a man who enjoys being the centre of attention.
“I am a private man. I’m not a celebrity type of guy. I don’t like attention. I am a private guy. I just like relaxing at home and listening to music.” Mokgalapa remains a fan of R&B music and admits to have little taste for some of the new sounds in the music scene. “R&B has that type of love and sincerity about it. “Those guys sang with passion, not for the money. You could play a song to your girlfriend and say sorry with it and she would forgive you just by listening to the song.” Mokgalapa enjoys tennis but as a “boy from the township” he also enjoys soccer and supports “one of the teams that are struggling at the moment”. He said his priority is to see the city deliver services to residents.
To achieve this, Mokgalapa promised to link all senior managers’ performance contracts with the city’s service delivery plan.
‘ ‘ One problem of local government is that there’s no oversight here
‘‘ You change people’s lives for the better. That is what God wants