The odds of bumping into Thivagaran Pillay, Thulani Thompson, Johannes Cornelius Botha, or Malcolm Leon Booysens in downtown Fort Frances are now pretty slim.
But for four days last week, the South African delegation was in town to learn what makes a small Canadian community tick.
The delegation, from the capital of Pretoria, included Fort Frances on a list of communities of varying sizes they visited in Canada to compare the implementation of legislation and changes such as amalgamation that also are being undertaken in their country.
“Our objective was to look at the large, medium, and smaller municipalities to look at how the amalgamation and implementation takes place,” explained Pillay, who is a director of L.G. Budgets and Intergovernmental Relations for South Africa.
The delegates, hosted by Fort Frances CEO Bill Naturkach, attended a council and committee meeting, and met with representatives from a number of local businesses and organizations.
“We want to see how you perform the training,” noted Pillay. “The skills are here–you have found a way to attract the properly-skilled people.”
In a country with 11 official languages and more than 40 million people, the delegates said there are a number of similarities in government structure and procedure.
In just its second term as a fully democratic country, South Africa has, according to the delegates, become a comfortable melting pot society.
“We’ve come from that past and now we tend to be more understanding of other cultures and traditions,” noted Booysens, deputy director of municipal finance policy and intergovernmental relations.
“The city life is quite similar except we drive on the other side of the road,” quipped Pillay. “The infrastructure is similar to that of our country.”
For all four delegates, the trip was the first time they’ve ever been in Canada. The group was led through a number of urban centres, including Ottawa and Toronto, by Federation of Canadian Municipalities consultant Meg Ogden.
“I learned don’t go to close to the lake,” noted Booysens, who despite inadvertently slipping into chilly Rainy Lake during his visit, said he enjoyed his stay.
“You can thank the people of Fort Frances for their warm welcome,” he said.
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