‘Fixing Bay is like saving a pig stuck in the mud’

Government officials tore into Nelson Mandela Bay’s political and administrative leadership on Wednesday during a return visit to the city by co-operative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) deputy minister Namane Dickson Masemola.

The no-holds-barred intervention meeting quickly descended into a searing indictment of the metro, with speaker after speaker castigating its leadership over alleged corruption, governance issues and a failure to fulfil its constitutional obligations.

The dramatic rebuke reached a peak when the host of the session at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium interrupted one of the speakers to admonish councillors for staring at their cellphones rather than listening to the proceedings, telling them to put their devices away and focus on the city’s pressing crisis.

The meeting aimed to craft a turnaround plan for the metro, a day after the National Treasury dealt the city a major blow by temporarily withholding its July equitable share allocation due to persistent financial mismanagement and governance failures.

The meeting continues on Thursday.

Those present included Masemola, Eastern Cape Cogta MEC Zolile Williams, mayor Babalwa Lobishe, senior municipal officials, and representatives of the National Treasury, provincial departments and organised labour.

The meeting comes as a Section 154 support team sent to the city in December completed a diagnostic assessment, identifying 101 areas requiring urgent intervention.

Addressing the key issue of power supply, Silas Zimu, special adviser to electricity and energy minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, said the municipality had been fortunate to enjoy the minister’s support.

“In 2023, we visited all the automotive industries in the area. We exempted them from load-shedding,” Zimu said.

“Solutions were given for electricity dips.

“We visited Aspen Pharmaceutical which had the same problem and we provided solutions.

“The issue is how to deal with theft and vandalism.

“Copper is stolen everywhere.

“Scrapyards are approved by the same municipality, giving licences, and they are the ones who [allegedly] actually buy the stolen stuff.

“Nothing happens to them.

“Your infrastructure has industrial customers connected to the same feeders as illegal connections.”

Zimu said this caused infrastructure to overload, with industries suffering and threatening to leave as a result.

“There’s no assistance locally, so there has to be technical staff because by regulation, 30% of the power outages should be restored within the first four hours.

“Now we’re talking 10 days.

“The whole place is off, affecting the industry that’s creating jobs for you.

“So, the lack of maintenance is very high in this area.”

Eskom and the municipalities were not working together, Zimu said.

“And I’m going state it as it is; the same power line that fell falls again and a quotation from Eskom is half of what the contractor appointed by the municipality is charging and the municipality opts to go with the contractor.

“We sent guys from Eskom from East London [KuGompo City] to meet in Nelson Mandela Bay and [the Eskom team] said they were already there and [the municipality] didn’t want to use [Eskom].

“It’s rusted infrastructure.

“The power lines cannot hold the conductors any more.

“Those conductors are heavy.

“There’s nobody to talk to in Nelson Mandela Bay.

“If we don’t say it as it is, we won’t solve it.”

Meanwhile, Masemola said businesses were focused on how to work together to leverage skills and capacities to reinforce the work of the municipality.

“In the discussion that businesses had with President Cyril Ramaphosa, they said that they did have money and they wanted to invest this money where they were doing business but they didn’t want to follow certain channels.

“You need that level of discussion with businesses here so that there is a clear understanding of how we can work together.”

However, turning to religion, he said where there was power and resources, the devil resided within politicians and officials.

“It becomes very important to appreciate that reality, so you know when you start to behave differently.

“You must know the presence of the spirit has overpowered you.

“You must know that your faith has been tested and your belief is at risk.”

Masemola said his department would like to assist Lobishe with electricity issues.

“She said four, five, six, or 10 transformers were needed in the city to restore power,” Masemola said.

“I have seen some of these proposals and the city must get money.”

Williams said continued use of evergreen contracts was fuelling irregular expenditure.

He said trying to help the city was like saving a pig stuck in the mud.

“And the pig wants to remain in the mud.

“You’re busy with party politics and not the collective view of the municipality.

“You must remove yourselves from this quagmire.”

He questioned the commitment of the municipality’s leadership when it came to tackling governance failures.

“If this collective in the management of this city were responsible, it would show direction and say we are united in this.”

Referring to the municipality’s budget, he said: “Nelson Mandela Bay has got R28bn for the 2026/2027 financial year. Explain why I must continue to give them the money?”

Williams said the appointment of senior officials had become overly politicised.

“This is a highly charged matter in Nelson Mandela Bay; just to appoint a municipal manager has become highly charged.

“This highly charged environment results in them advertising posts, failing to appoint within 90 days and collapsing the recruitment process.”

He warned that unlawful conduct was exposing the municipality to ongoing legal challenges.

“If we perpetuate illegality through irregular expenditure and incorrect appointments, we compromise governance and expose the institution to never-ending litigation.”

On a brighter note, he assured that the provincial government remained committed to supporting the metro.

“From the province, we have shown that we are with you, trying our best to support you.”

Williams also called for a clear separation between the roles of councillors and officials.

“The expectation is for the municipality to perform without political influence, especially from officials.

“They’ve never written letters applying to be managers.

“Please stop being advisers to managers. They have advisers.

“Just focus on your work as councillors.”

Lobishe opened the session by calling on Cogta to prioritise discussions on the safety and protection of councillors.

This came as a second suspect, 21, appeared in the New Brighton Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday in connection with the murder of ward councillor Sicelo Mleve.

His arrest followed the initial arrest of a 20-year-old man last week by members of the provincial serious violent crime investigation unit in Kwazakhele.

Mleve was murdered at his office in Zwide on the evening of June 20 at about 6.50pm.

The two face charges of murder, armed robbery and illegal possession of firearms.

“We stand here proud of our police because two weeks back we lost one of our councillors but we are happy to report that there is a court appearance of the second suspect,” Lobishe said

“Cogta must open discussions with us around the protection of our councillors and how we then move forward as this local government.”

During a break, Lobishe was asked about deputy mayor Gary van Niekerk’s recent criticisms in a letter to Williams.

Despite accusing Lobishe of sabotaging service delivery, blocking his initiatives and becoming the coalition government’s biggest obstacle, Van Niekerk said he would not resign, insisting that leaving would only worsen the city’s crisis.

One of his initiatives was a rapid turnaround strategy focused on rehabilitating the metro’s 100 priority routes by repairing potholes, painting road markings, restoring faulty streetlights, curbing illegal dumping, clearing rubble, cutting grass, maintaining verges and improving the safety and cleanliness of key transport corridors.

“I find it ridiculous,” Lobishe said.

“The 100 routes he was going to launch have been fixed.

“When I said to the speaker [Eugene Johnson] let supply chain sit so that we had service delivery running, the intention was to ensure no bid committee stopped and there was a flow on how we advanced service delivery.

“When that process is ready and the project is ready for launching he wants to take over.

“How is that so?

“I am heading service delivery.

“So it’s quite ridiculous and I don’t even want to entertain it any further because it just doesn’t make sense.”

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