Light-sleeper Zukiswa Lebeko is “the earliest bird that catches the fattest worm”. The Operations Manager for Revenue Customer Service wakes up at 4am to study for her postgraduate course in project management at Mancosa.
Lebeko then drops off her daughter and granddaughter at school in time to arrive at the South Hills Customer Service Centre before 7:30am to open the office. Thereafter, she jets off to the Customer Service Centre at Eureka House. She’s in charge of both centres, which serve as a link between communities and the City’s administration. They allow ratepayers to access, among others, revenue-related services, resolve billing queries, make account payments, and request new service connections.
“We’re the engine of the City,” she says of her team’s role in the municipality. The revenue centres also service the Johannesburg Roads Agency, Pikitup, and the Department of Housing to ensure all monies owed to the City are collected.
Challenges are par for the course and Lebeko deals with them head-on. “I’m proactive. When I identify challenges, I put contingency measures in place immediately. When you see a challenge, don’t build a wall, rather build a bridge, something that will make you move forward, and help you see beyond every challenge in life. That’s my motto.”
The mother of two, a 26-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter, as well as a four-year-old granddaughter, has a strong work ethic that pervades her life.
She’s sitting at her desk at the Revenue Customer Service Centre in Region F at Eureka House in a stylish turquoise outfit. “Welcome,” she greets before the interview starts. She has a calm demeanour and voice, accompanied by an infectious smile.
It’s after 10am and her team of customer service representatives are hard at work assisting ratepayers at their front desks. “I have the greatest team ever. They are go-getters. We are a team that is solution and result-driven,” she says.
Lebeko’s greatest inspiration was her late grandmother, Patience Sicholo, who died in 2012 aged 104. She, her sister, and cousins were brought up by their grandmother. “When I talk about her, I become emotional. She left us with the power of prayer. She was a strong woman. I am grateful to have been raised by her.”
Their grandmother taught them valuable life lessons, including the vital fact that the world owes no one anything. This is why Lebeko has worked 10 times harder for everything she has achieved.
She is a proud product of Sterkspruit in the Eastern Cape, having relocated to Johannesburg in the early 90s. She worked as a cashier at a fruit shop while saving up for a business management course. She was eager to learn, willing to go the extra mile, and always inquisitive. This led to her second job as a receptionist at an export and import company. She also gained valuable experience while working as a Public Relations Officer at a laboratory and as a Human Resources Practitioner at Sasol in Secunda.
Lebeko holds an Advanced Project Management certificate from Unisa and has completed a Management Advancement Programme through Wits University. She joined the City of Johannesburg in 2003 as a customer service representative.
In her stint in the City, she has been seconded to the query finalisation department as an assistant director, where she worked for two years. Here she managed to bring the backlog of service queries from 40 000 to 297. She was also seconded to Region A to help set up a revenue centre.
What she loves most about her job is the ability to touch lives. “Our responsibility is not only to ensure service delivery to residents but to also empathise with people. Whoever enters the revenue centre walks out satisfied with whatever they come in with. We have to ensure we’re officials that uphold the integrity of the City with our utmost best and assist customers beyond expectations.”
When Lebeko has a goal, she won’t take her gaze away from it until it is completed. “I’m passionate about making things happen while changing lives. It is pointless to make things happen if they won’t have a positive impact on someone else.”
Written by Brümilda Swartbooi
03/06/2022