The DA has announced MPL Retief Odendaal as the party’s mayoral candidate for Nelson Mandela Bay, in the run-up to the 2026 local government election.
DA Eastern Cape leader Andrew Whitfield made the announcement on Tuesday.
“In running a mayoral candidate for the metro, the DA declares our unequivocal intention to challenge for the governance of Nelson Mandela Bay in next year’s election,” he said.
No date has been set for the election.
Odendaal is a former Bay mayor and worked with a 10-party coalition.
Whitfield said the coalition had made huge strides in fixing the metro.
“During his time as mayor between September 2022 and May 2023, the DA and our coalition partners started to turn the metro around.
“Under his leadership, we improved service delivery and cracked down on corruption,” Whitfield said.
He said the city achieved an unqualified audit during Odendaal’s tenure.
Odendaal is a qualified attorney and was elected as a councillor in 2009 at the age of 27.
In 2014, he was elected as the DA’s Bay caucus leader and leader of the opposition in the council.
Between 2016 and 2018, he served as a member of the mayoral committee for budget and treasury.
He is now an MPL in Bhisho.
“Odendaal knows the administration of the metro like the back of his hand and has a critical understanding of the problems facing Nelson Mandela Bay,” Whitfield said.
“The DA’s choice of Odendaal as our mayoral candidate was the culmination of a competitive, thorough and exhaustive DA internal process of applications and interviews to select the very best person for the job.
“The DA has full confidence in Retief and believes that he will get Nelson Mandela Bay working again.”
The Herald
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