“Interested in helping the wider community? Synonyms include public-spirited, altruistic, charitable, humanitarian, selfless, and socially concerned.”
While this is how the Oxford Dictionary defines “community-minded”, the description is also a perfect fit for Brian Watkyns.
On Monday 31 October, the Pinelands Ratepayers and Residents Association (PRRA) presented the councillor with a Lifetime Achievement Award at their AGM held at Pinelands Town Hall.
Although still politically active in the role of proportional representative (PR) councillor, Watkyns retired as councillor of Ward 53 last year – ending a 39-year run in this position.
Watkyns was first elected to the Pinelands Municipality in 1982. Later, he was elected to represent the suburb at the Cape Divisional Council. He also served as co-chair of the Metropolitan Transitional Executive Committee with Nomaindia Mfeketo during which the committee was tasked with amalgamating five municipalities, including Pinelands, and overseeing the first democratic local government election in 1996 in the amalgamated Council.
Another one of his roles was chair of Subcouncil 15, covering areas such as Pinelands, Langa and Milnerton. And the list goes on. For brevity’s sake, it is best just to say that he served in almost every councillor position, including deputy mayor and acting mayor.
When it comes to describing his achievements during this time, this too would take up more space than any newspaper article would allow.
Although Watkyns’s impact through the years reached far wider than just Pinelands, that is what the PRRA came to celebrate on Monday.
Addressing those who had gathered for the handover, Riad Davids, the man brave enough to take over from Watkyns as councillor for Ward 53, shared some of these achievements with a focus on Pinelands.
As ward councillor Watkyns successfully opposed a reduction in open spaces in Pinelands, he successfully motivated the City of Cape Town to scrap the electricity surcharge being charged to Pinelands residents and, in 1995, he established the Pinelands Community Policing Forum with Peter Henry – the first certified CPF in South Africa.
Working in partnership with PRRA, he opposed and negated the Pinelands General Valuation which would have increased rates up to 72% and established in the first trading by-law, limiting informal trading to designated areas. Watkyns also proposed and lobbied for the original area of Pinelands to be declared a Heritage Area which was finally achieved in 2015.
Davids said he first met Watkyns “last century” when he pulled up in an old little blue Toyota at his house, complaining that Davids’s wall was too high.
“He was walking around with a stick that was taller than him to make sure that your wall wasn’t too high.
Now that was the first time in my life after living across the city, from District Six to Grassy Park, Athlon and Rondebosch East, that I actually knew a councillor existed. And I went to the ratepayers as well and a week later I was on the ratepayers executive, looking after the environment and planting trees.”
He said one thing that Watkyns taught them was “service, service, service”.
“And that is something that we never came across, that there were public servants dedicated to service. We could phone him at any time and Brian would be available,” said Davids.
Accepting this award, Watkyns shared how a Pinelands resident recently told him that people didn’t realise how much work a councillor actually did.
“We need to be available 24 hours, seven days a week, and it’s particularly difficult because we don’t have constituency MPs. So we have to do everything. We tend to work past midnight. We work on the weekends.”
He said what kept him going through the 39 years was his faith in his creator, his belief in what he was doing, and the support of his wife, Ann, and their four children, Catherine, David, Emily and James.
“So often they had an absent husband and an absent father. I recently read an interview that I did 25 years ago and the person asked me how much longer you’re going to continue. And I said as long as my family can withstand the stress. I must confess that limit was reached long ago.”
Watkyns also thanked the PRRA, with a special mention to John Berry, the association’s longtime chair.
“I bought my first house in Pinelands in 1979 and made the mistake in January of coming to a town meeting and shooting my mouth off and like Riad, I found myself on the executive within days.
“I’ve worked out that I’ve attended well over 500 meetings of the PRRA, either the executive or publicly.”
Yolanda Sheldon, his personal assistant for 16 years, and Catherine Mbuzo, also attended the handover.
“Not only did they help me cope with the workload but they made sure that I got to meetings on time… well most times,” he said.
Watkyns said he also couldn’t have achieved what he did without the support of the residents in Ward 53.
“An actress in the Sunday Times yesterday said she is a product of her community. I can say that my success as your ward councillor is due to my community. We worked well together.
“Yes, there were times when my actions or lack of action might not have set well with all. But at all times I tried to do what is the right thing to do irrespective of what I thought or what my feelings were.”
Having stepped down as ward councillor last year, he shared that he missed the interaction with the residents needing advice or assistance.
“But I won’t miss the 11 o’clock call at night saying, ‘I can’t go to sleep, the trains are shunting, can you stop them, please’? And then exactly two hours later to say, ‘They are still shunting, why haven’t you stopped them’?
“Or the Pinelands resident who phoned me from Stellenbosch. He said he was stranded in Stellenbosch, had no money to get back and as his ward councillor I must come and fetch him. He might still be there.
“Or the ongoing calls I got from a Thornton resident, saying, ‘Please, can I just eradicate the moles from Pinelands and Thornton’.
His final words of thanks went to Davids.
“I’ve worked with Riad for many years and I really appreciate that he was willing to take over and has I handed over the baton to him I did so in full confidence knowing that he will do a great job.”
