Former Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Gary van Niekerk has criticised the negative portrayal he received as mayor from print and social media, saying it contrasts sharply with the positive feedback he received from residents.
Speaking on the sidelines of Thursday’s council meeting, Van Niekerk said residents loved him, compared to harsh comments social media users left on platforms such as Facebook.
Van Niekerk was criticised for his trips to China costing hundreds of thousands of rand, his promise to eradicate all potholes nearly a year ago and his most recent commitment to make the city the safest metro by Christmas this year.
“I said the number of potholes would be reduced and that’s what happened, and we have lit up so many communities, which has helped to reduce crime because it’s no longer dark in the communities,” he said.
“The millions being invested in the city by the Chinese through the automotive industry is because of the trips.
“The Chinese have employed thousands of local people because of us and the premier [Oscar Mabuyane] acknowledged this when he invited me to accompany him to China on one of the trips.”
To his credit, Van Niekerk is the metro's longest-reigning mayor since the 2021 local government elections, having been elected in May 2023.
He said while some might have negative things to say about him, his tenure had been far better than those of his predecessors, ANC councillor and council speaker Eugene Johnson who was removed as mayor in 2021, and former DA councillor Retief Odendaal who led the city after Johnson.
“During Eugene’s period, there were serious shenanigans going on and at some point I was not allowed in council and my salary was withheld,” he said.
“A few days after the DA took over, they created a new directorate called constituency services which they never consulted anyone about.”
Van Niekerk said what had helped him last longer had been his transparency and honesty with his coalition partners.
“I was honest about the things I could and couldn’t do [and] this led them to trusting and have confidence in me that I would do the right thing, which helped me stand the test of time.”
Van Niekerk said most of the service delivery failures had been the results of an unstable administration.
“The city manager [Noxolo Nqwazi] was charged with serious crimes which resulted in her suspension, which I viewed as a positive as mayor, but it’s obviously negative for the city to have officials implicated in wrongdoing.”
Van Niekerk said the city was in the process of ensuring stability in the administration as it continued to struggle to hold officials accountable.
“Seven of our directorates have acting executive directors.
“This is not a good thing and it’s one of the reasons no-one can be held to account, but the acting city manager [Mandla George] is preoccupied with filling these posts as he conducted interviews last week.
“We also failed at installing R15m worth of security camera equipment that is sitting at the South End fire station.
“I’ve been calling for the installation of these cameras, but the officials are not doing anything.
“The people tend to forget what our role as politicians is. We are responsible to conduct oversight.
“I don’t go out and fix service delivery issues, I give instructions to the city manager, who in turn cascades them down to the relevant officials,” he said.
On the positives, Van Niekerk said one had been ensuring several communities, especially in the northern areas where gang-violence was rife, had working street lights.
“My tenure was the first where something like this happened for Helenvale, where there are working street lights, Schauderville and Stanford Road are lit up and these were pilot projects.”
Van Niekerk said other projects had been handed over to the Mandela Bay Development Agency for implementation due to the unstable administration
“Another positive is that we have cleaned up the administration by suspending the city manager and several other officials who have been on suspension for long periods.”
Van Niekerk said his new role as deputy mayor had much more responsibilities than his previous one which had held him up at meetings most of the time.
“If you look at what each directorate does, in the office of the deputy mayor you’ll find that the MBDA reports to my office and so does the chief operations officer, who is in charge of the executive directors.
“You’ll see much more of me on the ground now, ensuring that officials do what they’re supposed to, to ensure services are delivered.”
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