Rich pickings from hard work

SERVICES: ELECTRIFIED INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS, BUILT RESERVOIRS, NEW WATER NETWORKS

- Hein Kaiser

It's a tough job but someone's got to do it. Being a city manager and running the day-to-day realities of a metro that's got to service millions of people from diverse backgrounds and needs is not easy.

You're in the firing line of critics all the time, at the butt end of mayoral policy sometimes and the job is never done.

From potholes through to balancing the books when funding is like hens' teeth, outgoing Ekurhuleni city manager Imogen Mashazi said while she never thought she'd end up as city manager, it was the culmination of years of rewarding public service.

And while she's the first person to admit that there are very real challenges that the city faces, she's just as vocal about its achievements.

Thirty years ago, Ekurhuleni did not exist. It was part of Joburg which was in the PWV (Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging), later becoming Gauteng.

Joburg was chopped up and the East Rand was shaped out of the new democratic order. This was where she landed her first job in the municipality.

Mashazi was a qualified nurse and already had a reputation for getting her hands dirty in Soweto, at Baragwanath hospital, improving conditions for both patients and staff.

By the early 2000s she was director of primary health care and later director of health and social development.