“The revolution kills revolutionaries in Nelson Mandela Bay.”
Truth be told, we are forced to stand in absolute silence to bow our heads in memory of one of our own.
Comrade Sicelo Mleve — a young activist of the ANC, a selfless servant of the people, a dedicated community leader, and a long-serving councillor in local government — is no more.
He was an astute young politician who possessed an acute understanding of community development and a rare brilliance in mobilising the masses for the ANC.
I pay this tribute with a heavy, broken heart, a challenged mind, and a weary body.
My heart bleeds not only because Mleve has been taken from us, but because of the horrific manner of his death — a tragedy that mirrors how so many of our people in Nelson Mandela Bay are losing their lives daily.
Our metro has been captured by criminal gangsterism and absolute lawlessness.
It is deeply tragic that a city named after a global icon of peace, Nelson Mandela, is now ranked as the third most dangerous city in the world.
It ranks above Mexico City; it ranks alongside the territories of El Chapo and Pablo Escobar’s great cartels.
Yet, leadership folds its arms, watching a march they are supposed to be leading.
This systemic failure can only mean one thing: we are being governed by cartels.
The city is actively destroying its own. The buildings are collapsing, blood stains the pavements, and our tears flow directly into the rivers and the seas.
Every single day we wake up to the sharp, agonising cries of our people.
A revolution is not supposed to be driven by fear or intimidation.
But in Nelson Mandela Bay, the landscape has mutated.
The city has been captured by hooliganism, institutional theft, systemic corruption, and a thoroughly unstable government.
These unmanageable systems are broken by design. To steal from the public, those in power must create an unstable environment.
They have built an unstructured safety net that allows lawlessness to thrive unchecked from Summerstrand to KwaNobuhle.
To take the life of a man like Mleve, they first had to destabilise the state.
To kill Mleve, they had to wreck the unity and social mobilisation of our people.
They had to systematically dismantle the institutions of leadership across the church, civil society, and business sectors. They had to destroy everything.
The empty water systems had to collapse to kill Mleve.
The electricity grid had to fail to kill him.
The streets had to be plunged into total darkness so the forces of darkness could safely operate and take his life.
Corruption and predatory capitalism thrive in chaos.
Our city took the life of a peace-loving individual, an activist, a friend, a joker, but a fiercely principled man who was unyielding in his opinions, loud in his voice, and stern in his commitment to his ANC.
Frankly, I do not give a damn who hears this: this city killed Mleve in broad daylight — in front of the army, the police, the municipality, the church, civil society, and most painfully, in front of his own comrades.
Go, my comrade. Take your rest, but pass on these bitter truths to those who went before us:
Tell Xolani “Phiza” Sifali that the shining black and white of Cosas no longer represents the engineering student intelligentsia.
Tell Claude Qavane that Sasco has completely forgotten the SPOT document.
Tell him that NSFAS has collapsed and everything we fought for has been reversed by a new calibre of celebrity student leaders.
Tell Xola Ngcangca that the ANC Youth League has mutated into an agency for individuals and a choir of praise-singers rather than a catalyst for change.
Please, do not tell Gege Mbikanye, Nosimbiso Mayekiso, Bongani Gxilishe or Councillor Ngqodi — they already know the heartbreak of this place.
And hide it from Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Henry Fazzie and Ngculu Mthimkhulu.
Do not let them know that Nelson Mandela Bay has become one of the most violent cities in the world.
Do not tell them that the lights were completely off when you died, and that the water pipes were bone dry.
The very city you worked so hard for, the metro you fought to serve, has killed you.
Lala NgoXolo, Qhawe Lamaqhawe. (Rest in Peace, Hero of Heroes.)
Nqaba Bhanga
