Cape Town - After six-months of having a dark cloud hanging over his head, Mayco member for water and sanitation, Zahid Badroodien, said the return has been nothing but a smooth ride.

He spoke shortly after finishing the first month since the council speaker, Felicity Purchase and the Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis, announced the clearance of his charges as per the outcome of the disciplinary hearing he faced.

He resigned immediately after an investigation linking him to electricity tampering emerged.

It was alleged that a metre box at his property was tempered with, and he sat in a few council disciplinary hearings until his name was recently cleared, with a sanctioned warning.

‘’The reception has been very warm and welcoming. It was easy to transition back into the role because of the very good relations that I have built with officials on the ground and sector stakeholders. I wanted to hit the ground running and to re-establish relationships with stakeholders and visiting leadership in informal settlements that are working with the city to expand access to water and sanitation services.

‘’I used the first two weeks strictly to do all the necessary reading of documents and being briefed on key projects in my absence. These include the status of the pipe replacement programme and efforts to attend to pollution in our wetlands as a result of infrastructural challenges. Additionally, upon my return to office, I started to discuss the targets for the directorate in line with the Service Delivery and Budget Implementation Plan, as well as the status of our capital expenditure. Also, I joined the team at the tail end of the draft budget preparation. Working with the team to fine tune the budget prior to submission to council was also a key matter I needed to attend to early on,’’ said Badroodien.

‘’In terms of water and sanitation, my priorities going forward is to ensure that we spend at least 90% of our capital budget this year. It is to ensure that we meet the targets of the pipe replacement programme and to continue to strengthen the relationships with all stakeholders.’’

He acknowledged that this race to make up for the lost time might be affected by the current power outages ‘’Beyond this financial year, we are working to protect our directorate from safety and vandalism risks as well as the ever-present reality of higher and higher stages of load shedding that could have disastrous impacts on our ability to maintain an uninterrupted water and sanitation service if we do not procure the necessary generators and batteries to protect our service.’’

While he welcomed the punishment, he said the only this that's bothering his conscious is having dragged his family through the dirty game of politics and warned the public to be careful of what happens to their properties or anything that may harm their reputation.

‘’I have never wanted to expose my family to the public nature of politics. In this instance, they were pulled into a process that shares very openly our interaction with the city administration in a way in which there is no privacy for them. However, we view this as an important public lesson not only for ourselves but every property owner, and we take away that lesson that we must always ensure that any affairs relating to a property are always in good standing.’’

Welcoming him back last month, Hill-Lewis said: ‘’Badroodien has served this portfolio with the utmost care and distinction, building relationships across the city for better water and sanitation. I have full confidence that he will be a driving force in delivering on our ambitious infrastructure investments and service delivery priorities with dedication and integrity.’’

Badroodien had his first full council meeting since his return to office last week, and the majority of opposition parties also welcomed his return.