Walvis Bay junior city council members represented in Zimbabwe

The mayor of Walvis Bay junior city council, Fisabo Mapalo, her deputy, Rabanus Gabriel, and Ellen Shatilwapo attended the annual National Junior Councils Conference held in Zimbabwe.

Hosted at the Elephant’s Hill Hotel at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, the trio, along with their guardian, Ms. Shirley Tjaveondja, attended the four-day conference held under the theme “Intergenerational Solidarity: Promoting Local Government for all ages”.

Under the invitation of the National Junior Councils Association of Zimbabwe (NJCA), the conference saw the development of how civic values address children’s concerns in Zimbabwe as NJCA continues to promote, protect, and respect children’s participation and contribution in local governance and service delivery issues.

“As we interacted with various councillors and mayors at the prestigious event, we will take back trying to make the JCC be part of the national budget as well as having such conferences in Namibia.”

The group also met with the Zimbabwean First Lady, Dr. Auxillia Mnangagwa.

“We spoke about bringing back traditional norms and values in their country, which is currently going to be added to their curriculum. This program is called Gota Nanga and is also inclusive of the boy child. Of course, we also went sightseeing; the Victoria Falls.”

Fisabo added that they would like to encourage our country to create more opportunities where various junior councils who are active can represent their home country in a foreign country.

“We are immensely grateful to the NJCA, who made our stay enjoyable and fun, the Namibia Ports Authority, Freddie Fish Processors, Duneside High School, Walvis Bay municipality, and the office of the mayor for their financial support throughout our trip.”

This annual national conference initiated by NJCA is recognized by Zimbabwe’s local authorities and the ministry of local government and public works as an occasion that ought to be held at the end of every year to allow junior councils to come and share their activities and projects, as well as to share solutions to improving their mandate towards local governance and service delivery through coming up with a position paper, which will be their monitoring and evaluation report accompanied by possible solutions.

Junior councillors in attendance were tasked with coming up with strategies to contribute towards the government’s efforts to eradicate alcohol, drug, and substance abuse by children and youths.