Cedar House High School's Michael-Daniel Bam takes on Junior Executive Mayor role

Cedar House High School’s Michael-Daniel Bam has been elected as the new Junior Executive Mayor in an election held earlier this month.

Bam, 16, from Claremont was elected from within 50 members of the Junior Council, where Bishops’s Matthew Kriel was elected as Junior Deputy Mayor, Good Hope Seminary High School’s Mizero Hope Munyandekwe was elected as Junior Speaker and Curro Delft’s Luniko Nokhepeyi was elected as Junior Chief Whip.

Custodian of the Junior City Council(JCC), Councillor Donovan Nelson, said the election follows a month of spirited internal campaigning, where junior councillors articulated their visions for the JCC, outlining the initiatives they plan to champion and the legacy they aim to build as ethical, community-focused leaders.

Bam said he started his passion for serving the community from when he was 8 years old, when he did volunteer work at the League of Friends of the Blind(LOFOB) in Grassy Park.

“I ran my first ever project, a holiday club for kids at my school to raise funds for the organisation. That experience opened my eyes, not only to the realities many people face but also to the power of showing up for others,” he said. 

“I am excited to be elected, I feel the weight of the responsibility, and I’m ready to carry it. I look forward to being a strong voice for the youth in the halls of local government."

Bam also currently runs his own non profit, the Michael Daniel Bam Foundation, which is a registered non-profit company focused on uplifting communities and closing the socio-economic divide. 

Kriel, 16, said it is humbling to be elected as Junior Deputy Mayor.

“I don’t see this as its title, rather more as an encouragement to better the lives of others through servant leadership,” he said. 

As a Bishops learner, Kriel has been involved in various extra curricular activities like playing squash, cricket and he is a member of the South African Relations Society at the school.

Last year he was part of a learner exchange programme, where he was hosted by a family in Philadelphia in America, and attended The Episcopal Academy.

“It was an incredible experience and pretty much life changing for me, in that I got to experience how people live outside of the country and it took me out of my comfort zone and hence gave me the courage and confidence to apply for something on the City Council,” he said. 

Kriel plans on studying Medicine or Law when he finishes school.

Cape Argus