A lot of people in the City have not met Diena Louwrens in person, but she’s received countless emails and SMSes on how she has saved them by sending mayoral resolutions and reports in the nick of time.
With 39 years of experience in the City, Diena boasts extensive knowledge of local government legislation and municipal matters. She joined the City on 1 May 1980 as a Trainee Committee Officer, before serving as a Senior Committee Officer, Principal Officer, Assistant Manager, Manager, and Head Council, Committees.
She currently works as a Deputy Director: Strategic Support in the office of the Leader of Executive Business, MMC Funzela Ngobeni.
“I’ve always worked in a political environment and that requires diplomacy and dedication,” says Diena, adding that her involvement in the transformation process of Council was the most exciting part of her career.
“I worked with Dr Frederik van Zyl Slabbert at the Metropolitan Chamber, a new venture established to deal with the transitional administration, budget; setting up of systems, monitoring and evaluation of policies and administrative processes of a changing local government,” she explains.
As head of Council and Committees, Diena was responsible for all Section 80 Committees, the Executive Mayoral Committee and Council meetings. She offered corporate secretarial support services to relevant stakeholders to ensure an effectively implemented committee programme, which tracks the implementation of decisions and develops an electronic ‘dashboard’ committee system.
She was intimately involved with policy development, benchmarking, KPI development and monitoring of various services within the Committee Section, including the drafting of the Standing Rules of Council.
Following her appointment as Deputy Director: Strategic Support in the office of the Leader of Executive Business, Diena set up the new private office, rendering personal support services to the Leader and ensuring sound administrative financial planning, monitoring and co-ordination of systems.
A young Diena was swept off her feet by a fellow municipal employee, Pieter and the cherry on top was a toast proposed by the then Mayor, Cllr Danie van Zyl, at the lovebirds’ wedding over 38 years ago.
Diena and Pieter have two children. Her eldest daughter currently lives and works in Australia as a Chartered Accountant. Her son, a Mechanical Engineer, resides in Pretoria. On weekends, Diena cooks up a storm as she spends most of her time with her grandson, and is eagerly awaiting the birth of her second grandson who is due to arrive soon.
Her word of advice to her colleagues in the City is “to always strive to be the best in what you do and remain a dedicated, loyal and a content employee”.
Written by Kutlwano Olifant
