…councillors vow to tackle youth empowerment

THE Councillors of the Kwakwani Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) on Thursday were sworn in before electing APNU Councillor Ms. Elsie McPherson as Chairwoman and Mr. Cort Simeon of the AFC as Vice Chairman.

The elections were described as a smooth process with voting by way of open ballot which saw eight out of twelve going in favour of McPherson while PPP’s candidate, Sachie Parvation received four votes. Simeon also received eight votes with Ms. Junanita Leacock receiving four.

Attending the simple ceremony was Vice Chairman of Region 10 Elroy Adolph who in his short congratulatory address, encouraged the councillors to work together and to put aside petty politicking and party loyalty and to focus on the interest of the people and on bringing solutions to the issues with a hands on approach. Of the 12 council chairs, four went to the APNU, three to the AFC, three to the Independent Group KUFP and two to the PPP.

Chairwoman-elect Elsie McPherson said that she feels elated to be elected to the position since she always had her community at heart and she plans to work hand in hand with her fellow councillors to produce results for the residents of Kwakwani, whom she also thanked for their votes at the LGEs. She is confident that they will not be disappointed and work has already begun to bring relief to their challenges.

One of which is the roaming of cattle in the community, bringing much havoc to the residents. She will also be working towards developmental change in the community. “We want to bring back Kwakwani to the standard it used to be, we may not get it back to what it used to be during the company time but to bring it back to some resemblance of where we were so we can have pride in our community. I know that we will also be having the backing of the government and we will be working closely with Central Government to make Kwakwani a better place,” she said.

Vice Chairman Cort Simeon said that he feels good about being elected to the position and it shows that the councillors saw some form of leadership capability in him since he would have also held various port-folios in the community. He plans however, to give up some of his hats so that he can better serve in his position as vice-chairman. In addition to tackling the cattle roaming issue earliest, citing there was an issue recently with cattle being on the airstrip just as a plane was about to land.

Simeon said that the council will also be keenly addressing youth empowerment in the community, something that has been on the fore burner for a while. There are noticeable issues of teenage pregnancy, school dropout, unemployment amongst others plaguing the youths in Kwakwani. Simeon said that council will also be focusing on improved security with the installation of street lights.

Constituency Four Councillor Latoya Mohammed said that she is now in a better position to get things done for her community and to address problems such as street lighting, de-bushing and garbage collection.

Constituency Three candidate Maleka Russel also promised to work in the best interest of her community and to do so selflessly and diligently. She also expressed gratitude that the residents had confidence in the youths and elected them to run their communities at this election.