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My full name is Ntombizanele, but I’m comfortable called by my short name Zanele. My gender identity is female.
I’m a qualified Environmental Health Practitioner, and employed by the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality and attached to City Health Department – Environmental Health Unit. I am placed at the newly opened Environmental Health Office in Nyanga and am responsible for managing all the Environmental Health operations / activities in this office.
“Environmental Health refers to the theory and practice of assessing, correcting, controlling and preventing those factors in the environment that can potentially affect adversely the health of present and future generations” (WHO). Therefore, I am responsible for the provision of Municipal Health Services (MHS), which forms a greater basket of Primary Health Care Service as mandated by schedule 4 of the Constitution. The National Health Act 61 of 2003 defines these Municipal Health Services as follows: Water quality monitoring; Food control; Waste management; Health surveillance of premises; Surveillance of communicable diseases, excluding immunization; Vector control; Environmental pollution control; Disposal of the dead; and Chemical safety.
I feel that where I am currently placed – Environmental Health – is the best place for me to be in and pursue my health activism agenda, and change the quality of the lives of our people for the better.
I aspire to obtain a qualification in Public Administration because I see it as the vehicle to becoming a top government official who will influence policy and drive change from the top.