Pierre Voges to act as MBDA chief executive for five months

The Mandela Bay Development Agency board has appointed the entity’s inaugural chief executive, Pierre Voges, to act in the position for the next five months.

The appointment, the agency said, was intended to bring immediate stability to the organisation and provide the agility needed to consolidate the board’s work since taking office in November 2025.

MBDA spokesperson Nicole Klokow said Voges had officially stepped into the role with an address to the full agency team on Monday.

This was followed by an engagement with media representatives, along with board chair Khulile Nzo, deputy mayor Gary van Niekerk, and board members Welile Moss, Ernest Bergins and Dorelle Sapere.

“Over the next five months, Voges will be expected to review and reset the agency to ensure its structure is fit for purpose as well as prepare the organisation for the upcoming auditor-general audit,” Klokow said.

She said the appointment laid the groundwork for recruiting a permanent chief executive.

“He will also strengthen capacity in a senior management team currently under strain and generate recommendations to the board focused on where intervention is needed.”

Voges described his return to the MBDA as a privilege, saying his vision for the Bay had been shaped by decades of living and working in countries around the world, as well as by the lessons he had learnt growing up in Gqeberha about what made a city work for its residents.

“This city has all the ingredients to become a place for everyone,” Voges said.

“My goal is to position and support the MBDA over the next five months, so that when a new CEO is appointed, he or she will be able to focus on the right priorities and continue building on the vision for the city for which the entity was established.

“I understand its purpose and potential, and hope to lay a strong foundation for the next phase of its journey.”

Voges said his focus would be on organisational systems.

“The next five months will be the administrative task to sort things out that may be wrong.

“I am not going to change everything in five months but I can focus on a couple of things and get a couple of things right to enable the wind to score the tries,” he said.

“Many people will ask why an old man like me would come back here.

“The MBDA was started in 2004 and against all odds it became quite an admired agency in SA and internationally.”

During his tenure from 2004 to 2016, Voges led the MBDA in developing a 15-year master plan that shaped the city’s urban renewal programme and served as the blueprint for major redevelopment projects.

“I think [Nelson Mandela Bay] is a city that’s fixable,” he said.

“It’s a city that really caters for the middle class.

“It needs a bit of fine-tuning as all cities do.

“I don’t think it’s a sexy, funky city.

“I think it’s very blue collar; it’s very industrial but that is what makes it special.

“I came back to fix something.

“Maybe it just needs realignment.

“Let’s get the basics right.

“At one point in time, Nelson Mandela Bay was known as a clean city.

“Let’s clean the city.

“Let’s get security right.”

Nzo said the MBDA board had hired Voges for his experience and knowledge of the industry.

“We needed someone who could develop a turnaround structure and pave the way for the new CEO,” Nzo said.

“The board is quite happy to say that this is the ultimate CEO.

“This is the calibre of the CEO that we want in terms of qualifications and experience.

“We are not rushing just to fill a position for the sake of filling it but want to ensure that we’ve got the right candidate.

“At this point, we don’t really care whether the cat is black or white or pink or green as long as it can catch mice.”

Nzo said the board had decided to respect the legal process and wait for court proceedings to conclude before appointing a chief executive.

Former chief executive Anele Qaba was dismissed in March.

He was accused of sharing private company information while on suspension.

Since his dismissal, Qaba has launched several ongoing legal proceedings.

Van Niekerk said Voges had established the MDBA in 2004 under then mayor Nceba Faku.

“When we heard of the challenges that the MBDA is facing, we were hamstrung considering all the other things that are happening in the background when it comes to these legal matters,” Van Niekerk said.

“Do we want a permanent CEO at the MBDA? Most definitely.

“As soon as the legal matters are resolved, we will have a new CEO.

“Pierre has made it abundantly clear to all of us that he is here to fix the vehicle of the institution of the municipality.

“I have expressed my desires to Pierre.

“One of them is the cleanliness of the city and the other is the safety of the residents of our city.”

Van Niekerk said the municipality had bought about 400 surveillance cameras, including drones, for R27m.

“Police will have access to our cameras.

“We will also be connecting the stadium to our whole network, and then we are taking it further to the townships and Kariega so the city is becoming interconnected.”

Van Niekerk said the municipality would hold a media briefing later this week to showcase the new surveillance technology, which he hoped would ultimately be monitored from a central control room at the stadium.

The Herald reported on Monday that a municipal oversight report had accused the agency of serious governance and performance failures, finding it was allegedly failing to fulfil its development mandate.

The report was tabled at an economic development committee meeting on Friday.

It raised concerns over weak leadership, poor accountability, inadequate project management and failures to implement council resolutions.

It also found that several strategic projects had stalled or suffered significant delays, while key performance targets were missed.

Councillors expressed concern that governance problems at the MBDA had persisted despite previous warnings and interventions.

The report recommended tighter oversight by the municipality, improved governance practices, stronger consequence management and measures to restore the agency’s effectiveness.

Economic development, tourism and agriculture executive director Wandisile Makwabe also questioned why the municipality was not consulted on the appointment of an interim chief executive.

“While the board has the right and the prerogative to appoint a CEO it must consult the shareholders,” Makwabe said.

Though the municipality wholly owns and controls the entity and has the authority to appoint and remove board directors, the appointment of the chief executive rests with the board.

On Monday, Nzo said it was a coincidence that the article was published on the day of the media briefing.

“Nevertheless, I think as an entity, we continue, we understand that those are the kinds of challenges that we have to deal with.

“You know, at times, when we try to do something right it doesn’t mean that everyone will see that what you’re doing is right.”

Speaking about trust and relationships between entities, he said: “It’s a pity that the article that came out this morning doesn’t respect those kinds of protocols.

“I can’t be the MBDA chair reporting to every official in the municipality and ignore the government structure that is there, where the representative of the municipality is sitting there, the shareholders have a role to play.

“What is important is to do things in a basic manner that is co-ordinated, and I think this session here proves that.

“Once we start reporting to this official, because he thinks he’s got leverage over the entity, it’s not about personal egos.

“It’s the ego of an institution and its success, and that article really misrepresents the picture, the solid foundation that exists in the arrangements that exist between this institution and the municipality.

“The municipality is our 100% shareholder.

“And there’s a process that you need to follow to deal with the municipality.

“They need to respect that.

“Their role is clear because once the municipality starts interfering, they then call us to come and account.

“You can’t be a referee and a player.

“You’re going to sit on that side, ask the questions, then allow me to do my work.

“I think we really need to respect the government’s protocols to ensure that we are all moving in the right direction, and I think this session represents that, and that’s what we need to appreciate.”

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