Newly elected Mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay, DA leader in the Eastern Cape, Nqaba Bhanga, spent his first few days in office taking part in roadblocks to enforce lockdown regulations in the country’s hot spot.
After several failed attempts to elect a new mayor for the metro during council meetings held over the year, Bhanga was finally elected during a drama-filled council meeting on Friday that lasted for more than 11 hours.
The meeting started with speaker, Buyelwa Mafaya’s refusal to deal with the item on the agenda of the previous week’s adjourned meeting, the issue of electing a new mayor.
Approximately six hours later, after discussions with some councillors and arguments with others, Mafaya was about to make her ruling on the matter when she was suddenly manhandled by a few men and forced out of the chambers.
Although she tried to postpone the meeting virtually from the casualty department at St George’s Hospital, the PA’s Marlon Daniels was elected to take her seat and preside over the meeting that continued despite ANC and EFF councillors also having left the meeting.
Bhanga was then elected mayor by the remaining DA, ACDP, COPE, PA, UF and AIC councillors.
“I want to be clear, from the onset, that this is not going to be easy. This responsibility comes at a time when our city is waging war against the rampant spread of COVID-19, deepening poverty, rising unemployment, rampant crime and a devastating drought.
“Much of the ground we gained since 2016 has been lost. In places we are worse off than before, with even more daunting challenges to deal with, but we are ready and will not shy away from our commitment to the residents of Nelson Mandela Bay,” Bhanga said.
“We will root out corruption wherever we find it, deliver basic services and bring back law and order. A coalition of good governance is back in City Hall and we ask that citizens, businesses, civic and religious organisations and all municipal staff, officials and councillors rally behind this coalition. We cannot do this on our own. We need your help,” he added.
Bhanga mentioned that although there were many urgent issues regarding the drought, the metro’s finances and housing, among others, which would be urgently addressed, at the top of the list right now was the rampant spread of COVID-19 in Nelson Mandela Bay.
He attended roadblocks across the metro at the weekend, as part of a series of roving roadblocks to ensure that the 22:00 to 04:00 curfew was adhered to.
“We are going to ensure that there are roadblocks throughout and we are warning those that do not want to comply that if they don’t want to find themselves in jail, they must comply,” Bhanga explained.
“We want partnership with our people and to educate them about the dangers of COVID-19.
“We do this to protect our metro.”
