The newly
elected Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Executive Mayor, Councillor Nqaba
Bhanga has presented a turnaround strategy aimed at taking Nelson Mandela Bay
forward.
Speaking at the press conference, Bhanga said, “Today marks
the beginning of a new chapter, a positive chapter where we put aside the
politics and focus on fixing Nelson Mandela Bay. We have done it before, and we
can do it again.”
He added that the responsibility comes at a time when the
city is waging war against the rampant spread of COVID-19, deepening poverty,
rising unemployment, rampant crime and a devastating drought.
“It is not going to be easy. Much of the ground we gained
since 2016, has been lost. In places, we are worse off than we were before,
with even more daunting challenges to deal with. But we are ready. We will not
shy away from our commitment to the residents of Nelson Mandela Bay. We will
root out corruption wherever we find it. We will 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 as well as all
municipal staff, officials and councillors rally behind this coalition. We
cannot do this on our own. We need your help,” Bhanga added.
The most immediate matters that require attention, listed in
order of priority, are:
1. The rampant spread of Covid-19 in Nelson Mandela Bay
needs to be addressed head-on. We will be calling a briefing session with the
Head of our city’s Disaster Management office, and every effort to mitigate
against the spread of the virus must be embarked upon. This includes ramping up
public awareness campaigns immediately.
2. We will request the Budget and Treasury office to brief
us on the state of finances of the city, and the impact COVID-19 has had on the
city’s finances.
3. The drought poses a serious and obvious risk to the
people and economy of Nelson Mandela Bay. We want to urgently meet and engage
the Department of Water Affairs and Sanitation regarding the drought mitigation
plan for the city, and we believe a good case can be made for the department to
temporarily provide a water engineer to help avoid DAY ZERO. We further want a
briefing from our own officials on the current status of drought mitigation
measures in the city.
4. I will request the CFO to present a report on the
progress of all service delivery and expired service delivery contracts. We are
going to cut the grass, repair potholes, fix the leaks and fix the
streetlights.
5. Our administration has been battered and bruised by
compromised officials. We must fast track the appointments of acting executive
directors who are not compromised and where necessary, fill vacancies where
they exist.
6. Housing for residents and the failed projects will
require us to engage both the provincial and national departments of Human
Settlements to look for a way forward to deliver more houses. Intergovernmental
relations must be improved if we want to succeed with our turnaround of the
city. We will request meetings with both the national and provincial
departments.
7. We have seen that Covid-19 PPE procurement has engulfed
many municipalities and government departments in scandals, our city was not
immune to those who came to steal from the city. We want to know who received
contracts to supply PPE, for how much and did we get value for ratepayer Rands.
8. We are going to clean our city. We need to instill a sense
of pride where we live and allow communities to take ownership of parks and
public spaces, along with the municipality. We can only do this in partnership
with each other.
9. Our approach to delivering basic services has to change
and will change. We will establish a Basic Service Delivery Action Programme in
my office, which will coordinate and monitor the eradication of the service
delivery backlog in the city, along with our MMC’s. Daily reporting,
accountability to voters and direction are returning to City Hall.
SOURCE: Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Communications Office
