One-on-one with a Gweru Councillor

ZDDT Field Correspondent, Mandla Tshuma (MT), recently met with Councillor Kenneth Sithole (KS) of Gweru’s Ward 4, who was on a private visit to Bulawayo. Tshuma chatted briefly with Sithole, who is a beneficiary of ZDDT trainings in the Midlands capital. Below is their brief conversation.

MT: Good afternoon councillor. May you kindly introduce yourself and tell our readers how long have you been interacting with ZDDT as a community leader.

KS: I am Councillor Kenneth Sithole from Gweru urban, Ward 4. I am one of those councillors who have been in office from 2008 and up to now I am still a councillor. I worked with ZDDT from as early as 2009.

MT: How would you say you have benefited from working with ZDDT?

KS: I have received important trainings from ZDDT. ZDDT became visible in my ward then and then Gweru City Council.

MT: What else would you say about the work you did with ZDDT in your ward and the city as whole?

KS: Quite a number of clean-up campaigns were done with ZDDT. We also had some conflict management trainings and I learnt a lot from that.

MT: What impact has the ZDDT trainings had on your leadership attributes?

KS: The ZDDT training encouraged me. It made me to interact with the grassroots. The programmes that were rolled-out by ZDDT were mostly to help us interface with residents.

I gained a lot out of that, although I think you have to do more. I feel sorry for my friends who are there at the moment because they have not received as much as we received. But I want to believe that the situation at the moment economically is not very good.

MT: How would you want ZDDT to assist you in discharging you leadership duties in the community?

KS: I still want to invite you as ZDDT to come to Gweru, work with our councillors and do more. If you properly train a child, that child will remain with that attitude of working. We need more workshops.

We did another workshop here in Bulawayo at the Museum sometime but this was with the old councillors.

We need one with new councillors in the area of conflict management. Learning how to manage our conflicts is very important, especially to councillors.

MT: Thank you very much councillor for taking your time to talk to me.

KS: You are welcome