A simple request from a hopeful little girl is all it took to tug at the heartstrings of a top Durban city official.
|||Durban - A SIMPLE request, from a hopeful little girl, is all it took to tug at the heartstrings of a top city official.
Eight-year-old Alicia Paige Naidoo, of Phoenix, was all smiles after eThekwini mayor James Nxumalo made her dream of meeting him come true yesterday. Alicia had written to Nxumalo expressing her wish to meet him.
“Dear Mayor. Can I have 20 minutes of your time? I really want to meet you. I will bake you a chocolate cake when I get to meet you. Thank you so much.”
After receiving Alicia’s letter, Nxumalo said his fondness for children led to him clearing his hectic schedule to meet her.
“I love children very much. It doesn’t matter which walk of life or race group they are from, I just love them and I have been looking forward to meeting her,” he said.
“Maybe it is because of the environment that I grew up in, but they are very important to me.”
Alicia arrived at Nxumalo’s office accompanied by her mother, Natasha. The awestruck little girl said she was eager to be the envy of her classmates, after she tells them of the experience.
“I’m very excited and happy. I can’t wait to tell all my friends at school,” she said.
Nxumalo and the child bonded instantly after he scooped her up in a warm hug and kiss.
Amid chit-chat in both English and Zulu, which is a subject that the Hopeville Primary School pupil got full marks for, Nxumalo readily agreed to show off his gold chain of office, when she asked to see it.
As a father of six himself, two of whom are in the same age group as Alicia, his chat with her went smoothly.
Nxumalo invited himself to dinner at Alicia’s house, where she promised to prepare one of his favourite dishes. “I would love to come over to your house and spend maybe an hour-and-a-half with you and your family. I will bring my gold chain and you can cook breyani for me,” Nxumalo said.
The meeting ended with Alicia winning the hearts of every staff member at Nxumalo’s office. As he bade her goodbye, the mayor expressed his hopes for children.
“Our children are the future of our country and we need to invest in them to make sure it is bright, Nxumalo said. “They need to be protected because who knows, maybe one day Naidoo will be the mayor.”
Daily News