LOTS of experience is combined in the seven new heads of departments (HOD’s) that were appointed at Drakenstein Municipality at the beginning of January. Most of them are well connected to Paarl and the activities of local goverment and one of them is a previous executive deputy mayor of Drakenstein Municipality.
They are Anthea Abrahams (Community Services), Deon du Plessis (Civil Engineering Services), Vernon Petersen (Protective Services), André Marais (Corporate Services), Chris Mapeyi (Finance), Kefiwe Setheobane (Housing) and David Delaney (Planning).
* Anthea Abrahams (former deputy mayor) is a hands-on community development practitioner and holds a degree in Development Studies. She was a member of the local town council from 1999-2006 and now serves as head of Community Services.
* Deon du Plessis (head of the civil engineering department) graduated as engineer at the University of Stellenbosch.
He was appointed as assistant town engineer at Paarl Municipality in December 1989, responsible for solid waste management, fleet management and workshops.
After a restructuring process during 1996, du Plessis was given the responsibility to manage the support section namely design and planning, project management, information management systems and environmental management.
* Vernon Petersen (new head of the Protective Services Department), was born in Paarl. His career started in 1978 with provincial traffic service and he also lectured (training of traffic officers) at the Gene Louw Traffic Training College.
During 1996 he was appointed as the traffic chief of Paarl Municipality and occupied this position until 1998, when he became head of the traffic department of the Helderberg. He later became director of operations for the Metro Police in Cape Town and is a previous chairman of the Western Cape Traffic Officers Forum.
* André Marais (Corporate Services Department) is a Paarlite born and bred who started his local government career at the Paarl Municipality in 1979 when he was appointed as administrative officer in the town clerk’s department.
Through the years he progressed to the position of assistant town secretary.
After Paarl Municipality amalgamated with other surrounding municipalities during 2000, he was appointed as manager of administrative services of Drakenstein Municipality, which position he held until his recent promotion.
* Chris Mapeyi (Finance), born and bred in Mbekweni, has a degree in management accounting and a national diploma in cost and management accounting.
He completed his articles at the office of the Auditor General and has worked at Safmarine, Drakenstein Municipality, Pioneer Foods and PetroSA.
* Kefiwe Sethoabane (Housing Department) holds a master’s degree in Housing Development and Management from UCT. In 2001 she joined the national department of Housing and became operations manager of Habitat for Humanity South Africa (Gauteng) in 2003. In 2006 she became one of the project managers of the N2 Gateway project for Thubelisha.
She currently serves in the Housing Standards generating task team assisting the national department of housing with the professionalisation of the housing sector. She is also busy with MBA studies at the University of Stellenbosch Business School.
* David Delaney (Planning Department) started to work at the Cape Provincial Administration in December 1982 and obtained the national diploma in town and regional planning in 1985 followed by a national higher diploma in town and regional planning in 1989. During 2005 he obtained a diploma course in local government management.
In 1996 he joined the Paarl office of the Western Cape Regional Services Council (later the Boland District Municipality).
Due to the amalgamation of municipalities, he was transferred to the Drakenstein Municipality on 1 July 2001 where he has has been acting head of the department of Planning since 1 July 2002.
The HODs will report to the five senior directors at the Municipality.
