To the executive mayor, speaker and ward councillors, Nelson Mandela Bay municipality.
I write this letter not as a political opponent nor a detached observer, but as a parent, a lifelong resident, and a citizen who is profoundly angered and deeply ashamed of what you have allowed Gqeberha to become under your watch.
This festive season, I took my children on what should have been a joyful and ordinary drive from the northern areas to Summerstrand.
Instead, it became a journey through neglect, decay and outright contempt for human dignity.
Driving along Stanford Road, through Jacksonville, Salsoneville, Helenvale, Gelvandale, Humewood, onto the N2 Freeway, and finally Marine Drive, one reality was unavoidable: streetlights are dead without exception, potholes scar the roads — even on the freeway — debris lies everywhere, and the stench of neglect is sickening.
By the time we reached Summerstrand — our so-called “pearl of great price,” our prime beachfront and tourism hub — the disgrace deepened.
The area was dirty, dry and visibly abandoned. No festive lights. No displays.
No atmosphere. No indication that this city values tourism, families, or its own reputation.
Happy Valley, once iconic and magical, lies in ruin.
Over my 50 years of life, I have seen millions drawn to that space.
I remember buses filled during the apartheid years and beyond, children walking in wonder, heroes and fairies igniting imagination.
You have robbed my children — and an entire generation — of that joy.
But the neglect does not end there.
Driving through Timothy Valley and Extension 21, the situation moves beyond neglect into something far darker.
For two to four years, raw sewage has overflowed unchecked.
Rotten human excrement runs down the streets for kilometres.
The smell is unbearable.
It clings to vehicles, homes and people.
You wash your car and drive through it again — and the stench follows you home.
The roads are utterly inaccessible. Vehicles are damaged, wheels are broken, suspensions destroyed.
This is not inconvenience; it is daily punishment for being poor, for living in the wrong ward, for being invisible to those elected to serve.
It is mind-boggling — in God’s name — how you can allow this to continue for years.
Even more disturbing is what you have allowed our children to endure.
Hundreds of schoolchildren from two primary schools walk through this sewage every single day.
They have no alternative route.
If they avoid the sewage, they must walk through bush where they are exposed to the risk of rape, murder, robbery and assault.
These are children. And you have failed them.
This is not a failure of resources alone.
It is a failure of conscience.
It reflects how little ward councillors and the municipality think of us as a people.
And yet, in the midst of this rot, decay and danger, you approved and accepted salary increases.
To take home more than R700,000 per annum as a ward councillor, while residents live with sewage in their streets and children wade through human waste to attend school, is morally indefensible.
The additional benefits enjoyed by the speaker and mayor only deepen the insult.
Leadership is stewardship. And you have failed that trust.
This letter demands accountability — not statements, not excuses, not political deflection. Action.
Fix the sewage infrastructure. Restore street lighting. Repair roads. Clean the city. Protect children. Respect communities.
Earn the salaries you so readily accept.
Until then, know this: your failure is visible, it is smelled, it is lived — and it will be remembered.
Get your act together.
“Bruinou”
The Herald
