Actions speak louder than words
Riana de Coning, Overstrand Municipality’s councillor for Ward 2 (Gansbaai, De Kelders, Kleinbaai and Blompark) and Mayoral Committee Member for Finance, does not like talking about herself. Instead, she believes that the way forward is to “quit talking and start doing”.
As one of Gansbaai’s dynamic women who believes in getting things done, Riana is guided by honesty, compassion and fairness at all times when dealing with people. It is generally known that she is always prepared to walk the extra mile in serving the communities of her ward. “When and where I can support people, I do it out of my heart,” she says.
After becoming actively involved in various projects in her community, Riana says, “The next obvious step was to become politically involved, in order to be able to add my voice to the decision making by the higher structures. My priority as a councillor will always be to go out of my way to support my constituents.”
Unfortunately, some of these face-to-face projects almost came to a stillstand during the lockdown. But one of the projects that continue is the Winter Warmth Project, which she initiated in 2015. “This project is so successful due to the enthusiastic support of the Gansbaai knitters, who knit 350 to 400 beanies every year. So well done and thank you to them,” she says.
Other community initiatives include the ‘Care for the Women and Children’ project which was established to issue sanitary wear, baby formula, and baby nappies to the most vulnerable and needy families in the Gansbaai communities, and those projects that support the elderly (Herberg aan See Old Age Home and Silwerjare Service Centre), providing love, care and kindness to our senior citizens. Also dear to Riana’s heart is the welfare of animals. She actively supports BARC (Birkenhead Animal Rescue Centre) and firmly believes that a society’s level of civilization is measured by the way it treats its fellow human beings, especially children and the elderly, and its animals.
Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Riana has put her motto into practice by “doing” instead of “talking”. The immediate need was to see to it that people do not go hungry. Working together with various church leaders, community workers, the Overstrand Municipality, and compassionate individuals in the area, Riana became involved in fighting hand in hand with vulnerable communities to combat the impact of Covid-19.
“With the support of strong community welfare organisations and generous individuals, 14 soup kitchens and the distribution of food parcels to families in need throughout the whole area were established and are still functioning on a daily basis,” she says. “For this, I thank the selfless, caring public of Gansbaai but also the whole Overstrand, who gave their wholehearted support to these projects,” says Riana.
Riana de Coning (née Moll) was born in Brits in the North West Province and grew up on a bushveld farm near Thabazimbi. She attended Normaal College for Education in Pretoria, obtaining her Higher Education Diploma before embarking on a teaching career at Barberton in the Mpumalanga Province. As a part-time student at the University of South Africa (UNISA), Riana obtained a BA degree, followed by an Honours degree in Psychology, as well as a Higher Diploma specialising in the support of learners experiencing learning barriers.
During the early eighties, Riana married King de Coning and the couple went on to have five children and 12 grandchildren. In the late ’90s, they moved to the Western Cape and settled in Swellendam before relocating to Gansbaai in 2007. Riana was an educational inspector until she decided to resign in 2011 to become involved in community work full time.
Having joined the Gansbaai branch of the Democratic Alliance (DA) in 2008, she soon became one of the branch executives and, within a year, she was elected to the management team of the Overstrand DA constituency. After the resignation of Alderman Pieter Scholtz, she was elected as his successor during a by-election in 2014 and became councillor for Ward 2 in Gansbaai. In the run-up to the local elections in 2016, she again went through the pre-election procedures and was once more successful as the designated candidate for the DA and elected as councillor for Ward 2, a position she still occupies.
Riana has also been a member of the Mayoral Committee since 2016 – a position that only six designated councillors occupy. She has headed various portfolios, including Management, Protection Services, and currently Financial Services. During her municipal career, Riana has successfully attended at least ten councillor training courses which she passed with distinction.
“There are times that I am quite taken aback when people refer to me as a ‘politician’ out of the blue. This is because I am community-driven and usually get so deeply involved in the community issues that I sometimes forget about being a politician,” says Riana.
“I derive huge satisfaction from my profession and the great opportunity that has crossed my path to serve. But I do not stand alone, and on this special occasion of Women’s Month, I salute all the wonderful women in our communities who give so much of themselves to help others.”