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“Afzul Rehman – Biography, Wiki, Personal and Career Newcastle, South Africa”

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Afzul Rehman, a 45-year old businessman, turned politician, was born and brought up in Newcastle, South Africa. He is the former Mayor of Newcastle Local Council, where he earned accolades in developing the city’s municipality through various noteworthy reforms.

He is the son of the former IFP MPL (1994-1999), Farouk Rehman, and was brought up in a community-oriented home. While growing up, he helped his family in managing their building material business and also used to assist his father during his tenure of the legislature.

In 1991, Rehman completed his matriculation from the Lincolns Heights Secondary School, Newcastle. During 1992-94, Afzul Rehman studied at the University of Kwazulu Natal but left to join his family business. In 1996, he managed his family business, where he got the exposure of interacting with the local community and dealing with various customers. Soon after joining, at just the age of 22, he won the election as a Ward Councilor at the Newcastle Local Council in 1996, which paved the beginning for his political career.

In 1996, Rehman entered the service as the Councillor of the Umzinyathi District Municipality and continued in the same position until 2000. He also accomplished in earning the role as a member of Newcastle Council’s Executive Committee in 2006. Soon after, he had also acted as the Finance Councillor at the local Portfolio Committee. After this role, his life’s important achievement came when he won the position of Deputy Chief whip at the ANC Caucus.

Between 2004 and 2006, Rehman held the member’s position at the regional committee of the then ruling ANC. After which he also earned the Board Membership at the KwaZulu-Natal Trade and Investment Council. In the year 2007, he further got selected as the Product Chairperson of the local labor forum and as the regional treasurer of the ANC Emahlahleni region. In 2009, he functioned as the Deputy Mayor and also as the acting Mayor of the Newcastle City Local Council.

His most notable achievement came in 2010 when he won the election as the Mayor of Newcastle and became the youngest Mayor the city ever had. In 2015, he earned the title of the most consistent performing Mayor in the province and was praised for bringing substantial reforms to the city’s municipality.

During his tenure as the Mayor, he was honored as the KwaZulu-Natal’s best Mayor, consistently for three years. Under his leadership, the ANC’s position skyrocketed from 47% in 2009 to 72% in 2014. His decision to cancel all free lunches to councilors and staff of the municipality and stop printing council agendas in all of their meetings resulted in surplus savings as a result of streamlining. The savings were allocated to the capital expenditure budget of KwaZulu-Natal’s city of Newcastle. It resulted in a fivefold increase in the CAPEX budget of the city, from R86 Million in 2009, R229 Million in 2013, and R492 Million in 2014.

His dedication and hard work in uplifting the local community helped him secure the same position as Mayor consecutively for four years. Among his many remarkable measures, his decision to conduct paperless meetings at the council earned him several accolades and was praised by many people, especially the environmentalists. As the Mayor, he was credited with developing the municipality’s infrastructure by investing in the township with more than R2 billion during the five years of his term.

In 2016, he enrolled himself in the Diploma in Public Administration at the University of Pretoria. He was recently appointed as the speaker of the Amajuba District Municipality in 2016 and was in service until the year 2018.

On the personal front, Afzul Rehman is survived by his wife Farhana, with whom he got married in the year 2005, and two sons (Mohammed Zia and Umar) and a daughter named Maariya.

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