ActionSA Nkangala Mayoral Candidate Mary Phadi Discusses Local Governance
MPUMALANGA— ActionSA’s Nkangala Local Municipality mayoral candidate Mary Phadi told Briefly News in an exclusive interview that the country must focus on effective governance and accountability to improve people’s daily lives. She spoke two days after she was announced as the party’s mayoral candidate.
Source: Original
Phadi, who was expelled from the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party in July 2025, said communities want delivery and not rhetoric. She said people want leaders who can fix municipalities, manage budgets and deliver services.
Mary Phadi on local governance
Phadi said that local government is where people feel the impact of governance the most, like issues with potholes, water, electricity and waste collection.
“For Nkangala, fixing local government is the fastest way to restore trust and improve livelihoods,” she told Briefly News.
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Phadi also remarked that infrastructure maintenance and expansion are not in conflict and must happen together. She observed that if systems are collapsing, new connections will not be sustainable. Phadi said that stabilising and fixing existing infrastructure creates a foundation that expands services reliably and sustainably.
She also said that financial discipline must be balanced with compassion. Phadi called for billing systems to restore trust, improve revenue collection and stop waste. She said that a functional municipality is one that protects the poor but enforces accountability, ensuring services can be sustained.
Phadi, who was the MK Party’s Mpumalanga Convenor until the party expelled her, said that the success of a municipality should not be measured by service-delivery outcomes. These should be consistent access to water and electricity, reducing outages and service interruptions, functional and maintained infrastructure and faster response times to community issues.
Source: Briefly News
