[2] The municipality was a stronghold of her political party, the African National Congress (ANC), and Nxumalo went on to serve as the council's first woman chief whip.
[2] During that time she was also one of three deputy provincial chairpersons of the Mpumalanga branch of the South African Local Government Association, having gained election to that office in October 2016.
[6] Over the next five years Nxumalo launched a number of infrastructure initiatives in the town, including a new R8.1-million water reticulation and purification system on the Sabie River, constructed in collaboration with the Kruger National Park,[7] and an R11-million paved road connecting Malubane village to the R536.
[10] However, Bushbuckridge residents continued to lodge violent service delivery protests throughout her mayoral term, including in Ga-Modibidi in 2019,[11] in Mapulaneng in 2021,[12] in Marongwane in 2022,[13] and in Acornhoek in 2023.
[1] She was not elected to the provincial legislature but instead became an ANC delegate to the Mpumalanga caucus of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), the upper house of the South African Parliament.