KWAZULU-NATAL MEC for cooperative governance and traditional affairs Nomusa Dube has urged the people of Jozini on the outskirts of Zululand to make sure that they vote for councillors who will work for them.

Dube was speaking during the unveiling yesterday of a programme to rehabilitate Jozini. The town, which lies near the borders of Swaziland and Mozambique, received a major boost in the form of a multi-million rand programme to revive it.

The plan, which is in keeping with the programme of reviving small, rural towns, is intended to rehabilitate the town's infrastructure to make it lively and enhance its ability to attract tourists, big business and improve intergovernmental economic trade relations with the two neighbouring countries.

The launch of the project coincided with the opening of the R6,5million Thusong Multipurpose Service Centre, which has offices for the department of home affairs, the Independent Electoral Commission, the South African Social Security Agency, the department of labour, an Internet café and the department of traditional affairs.

Local people will no longer have to travel long distances for simple services such as the acquisition of birth and death certificates or applications for state grants.

Dube said: "May 18 is the opportunity for you to elect your representatives, whose sole responsibility will be to service you. I hope that you will not elect lazy councillors.

"We want people who will ensure that municipalities are transformed into centres of development. We want people who are soldiers of development."