In the
light of continued political bickering by the elected leaders of all parties in
the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality, the Civil Society Coalition has
decided to support the changing of the municipality from one led by an
executive mayor to one led by an executive committee within a ward
participatory system.
The amendment has been gazetted by Eastern Cape Cooperative
Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) MEC, Xolile Nqatha.
“Our metro is on the verge of collapse and urgent action is
needed to break the political stalemate and circus the council has become,”
said Civil Society Coalition chair, Mongameli Peter, after a meeting of the
coalition partners.
“The decision to support the MEC is consistent with our
position taken when it became clear that the coalitions were fragile and
plagued by continued political bickering. What we need is a government of local
unity”.
There has been political instability since 2016, he says.
“We have met with the main political parties and urged them
to voluntarily cooperate in order to save the metro which has all but
collapsed, but they continue to put party politics and personal agendas ahead
of the needs of the residents”.
The coalition is a broad affiliation of organisations
representing business, labour, youth, the elderly, learning institutions,
environmental and religious formations.
It believes that the state of the metro, which has sewage
running in the streets, a water crisis, unreliable power, potholes and hundreds
of streetlights not working, is so serious that the metro is busy collapsing.
“We cannot waste more time and resident’s money on endless
legal challenges.
“Council needs to meet in order to pass resolutions and
budgets, and for the committees to do their work,” says Peter.
“What we are fighting for is the life of the metro. Our local economy is directly threatened by the failure to
deliver basic services.
“The metro has become a high risk operating environment for
businesses, who are finding it increasingly difficult to justify future
investment or even remaining in the metro.
“This will leave many thousands more without jobs and any
hope of finding one. Residents – the people who voted for the politicians – are
already suffering through the absence of service delivery. We simply cannot continue the way we are,” said Peter.
He said all parties voted in last year are equally to blame
for the chaos and collapse of service delivery.
“We call on all the representatives to act now to do what
the voters asked for.”
The coalition is galvanising support across the metro
through signing a pledge to support the turnaround of the metro fortunes.
“And we cannot afford to fail our constituencies. The people
of city, through our coalition structures, have directed us to stop relying on
diplomacy to bring about stability.
“We will now effect pragmatic and radical actions in the
form of protests, calling a meeting with the state president and pursuing civil
litigation”.
