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Nelson Mandela Bay needs a new government to get this Metro working again.

Over the last 30 days I have spent much of my time experiencing the day to day lives of the people of our complex and diverse city.

Together with the Democratic Alliance team I engaged stakeholders, addressed many public meetings and have done extensive oversight of municipal infrastructure and facilities.

I know, just as many of you do, that our metro is broken. What has shocked me to my core is the fact that the people of our metro have given up almost all hope of being able to fix the city.

From poor households that have been deprived of free basic services for months and forced to steal electricity, to developers being unable to facilitate new investment through the metro - the current NMB-administration is clearly one with a closed-door policy. An inept, dysfunctional and uncaring municipality that works for no one.

There has been no State of the Metro address by the current Executive Mayor, notwithstanding the fact that she has been in office for nearly 10 months. Perhaps because she knows all too well how broken the city has become.

This has become the story of NMB, but the good news is that it is not the final chapter. The DA is committed to rewriting this story and getting NMB working again.

Over the last ten months, the current ANC-led administration has achieved record failures with regards to finances and service delivery. The facts read like a horror story of mismanagement and neglect.

These include:

• The Highest debt on record (R9 billion)
• The Lowest capital expenditure on record (76%)
• The Slowest creditors repayment rate on record (72 days)
• The Lowest collection rate on record (75,67%)
• The Lowest number of indigent households being serviced over the past decade (54 630)
• The Highest non-technical electricity losses on record (17,5%)
• The Highest number of outstanding town planning amendments (more than 400)

There are a record 20 000 potholes that need to be fixed and more than 5500 sewage blockages that must be cleared.

The municipality has also only reached four out of its 16 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in terms of service delivery - a woeful 25% compliance.

Water Crisis:

The drought remains the biggest crisis in the Metro. It has become crystal clear that this is a man-made crisis and that the situation has been exacerbated by a lack of leadership.

There are still thousands of households that either have no water meters or dysfunctional meters. We are still tolerating gross overconsumption by some residents and in certain instances we just don’t know where our water is going.

If the Metro is to achieve sustainable water and sanitation access for all, it has to adopt a multifaceted approach. The three most pressing challenges are: failing infrastructure through lack of maintenance and development; the dysfunctional institutions (getting the municipality working) and climate change, for which we can only plan.

We have no Water Services Development Plan, even though this is a requirement of the Water Services Act.

The Metros’ Non-revenue water (NRW) losses are at an astronomical 49% whilst actual water losses are still standing at a whopping 38%.

We are spending a very large percentage of our budget on finding new water resources and far too little on preventing water losses of existing water resources.  It is a no-brainer that our efforts must be focused on curbing water losses.

The first step in a water loss control programme is a water audit that identifies and quantifies the water usage and losses. In order to determine where the most water losses occur the use of meters are crucial.

Every year the Metro spends tens of millions of rands on meters and water loss control as well as drought mitigation projects, yet our NRW remains exceptionally high. We must ensure that the water loss programme is focused on determining where the water losses are and then implement the best possible solution to fix these problems.

Two years ago this metro forfeited R183 million in Drought Mitigation Grant Funding due to an inability to spend the money. A similar crisis is now unfolding as a significant portion of the R57 million grant funding received from CoGTA to upgrade our Stanford Road and Motherwell pump stations will not be spent by the end of November 2022.

It is likely that we will forfeit at least half of this funding.

It is of course possible to fix this water mess. It just requires leadership and planning.

We need to draft a Water Services Master Plan so that we know what infrastructure needs to be fixed or replaced. We need to ensure that each and every resident has a functional water meter in place.

Vacant plumber posts must be staffed with qualified personnel and retired engineers must be invited to volunteer and assist.

We need to invest in the necessary technology to assist in our water loss programme, and we must ensure that our Call Centre, becomes fully functional again.

We must interrogate the present plans regarding municipal boreholes.  There must be clarity regarding cost effectiveness and timeframes for completion.

The Nooitgedagt Low-Level Water Scheme provides 60% of our water- water that flows from the Gariep Dam. Now that phase 3 is nearly complete, why are we not fast-tracking the rollout of phase 4 of this system?

A government with foresight will start putting medium to long term water security plans in place. Without water security, our metro will be unable to attract any significant investment in the very near future.

Public Health:

Every river in the city is heavily polluted. Partially treated sewage is currently pouring into the Swartkops River daily, and sewerage overflows are rendering the Baakens, Chatty and Papenkuils Rivers unfit for human contact.

Non-compliant effluent is also discharged into our coastal waters on a 24-hour basis.

The Metro has recently received a R2,5 million fine for this irresponsible action, which is not just an environmental disaster, but one which could potentially put lives at risk.

Illegal dumping and uncontrolled littering resulted in the Metro being labelled “filthy” by its residents. It’s no wonder given the fact that the Public Health’s Waste Management sub-directorate has a 41,5% vacancy rate and an average fleet availability of 38%.

Very little action has been taken to address the health hazard posed by the manganese ore operation in the Markman Industrial area, and along the route to the Port Elizabeth harbour.

Tests have proven the dust levels to be at dangerous levels, and have also shown that the manganese ore dust spilled on the roads and pavements produces toxic leach.

Water quality has recently been an area of focus, with the admission, in February 2022, that the water in our taps was unfit for human consumption. It is an established fact that the water had been unfit to drink since December 2021 and yet nothing was done until political pressure by the DA forced the hands of officials.

It is most concerning that the directorate has already stated that it does not have the resources to monitor the quality of water that might have to be delivered via taps and tanks at collection points should the western dams run dry.

Creating a healthy environment for residents should be top priority for any government. There is no reason why we cannot avail the monthly water samples to the public via the municipal dashboard. The administration must be equipped so that it can keep to the legislative timeframes of a 24 hour turnaround time on a sewerage spill or blockage.

The 6000 bucket toilets in the metro must be eradicated and a zero tolerance approach to illegal dumping should be implemented.

Updating our outdated bylaws will ensure that we make massive strides in fighting many of the aforementioned issues that affect the environment and wellbeing of our residents.

Safety and Security:

It is sad fact that most of our communities feel unsafe in their own suburbs.

The Metro Police is being hamstrung by a shortage of staff and vehicles and as a result struggle to enforce bylaws and traffic laws.

The shortage of staff and vehicles in the Traffic Department is the main cause for the lack of law enforcement on our roads.

The contractor that was appointed to provide speed cameras, is also failing to fulfil its contractual obligation to the Municipality.

One of the biggest challenges faced by the Safety and Security Department, is that there is no management system in place to manage the more than 600 insourced security officers. Rampant vandalism and theft of municipal assets remain out of control.

There is also no dedicated response unit to combat vandalism and theft.

In a bid to get our city safe again, we need to establish additional Metro Police precincts. We also need a far better symbiotic working relationship between the Metro Police, SAPS and especially our local neighbourhood watches if we are going to turn the tide against crime in our metro.

Our fire stations desperately need to be resourced and our traffic department requires an entire overhaul.

An anti-vandalism unit must be equipped to deal with the scourge of vandalism of municipal assets. This unit must also involve our community so that we can  start taking ownership of our community assets.

Finances:

The metro yet again received a qualified audit opinion from the Auditor-General.

The AG highlighted that material water losses now stands at R217,1 million, with material electricity losses at R651,6 million.

The urban settlement development grant (USDG) had an unspent portion amounting to R 175,1 million. The total amount of grant funding lost in the 2020/21 financial year was R320 million.

According to the AG reasonable steps were not taken to prevent irregular expenditure amounting to R 1,4 billion. The majority of the irregular expenditure was caused by non-compliance with supply chain management legislation. Irregular expenditure incurred by the municipality was also not investigated to determine whether any person was liable for the expenditure as required by the MFMA.

The chaos in Supply Chain creates the perfect environment for looting and that is why it is in the interest of corrupt politicians and municipal officials that it’s not fixed.

Apart from the historic audit matters which the municipality does not have the internal capacity to fix, fixing the finances of a municipality is easy.

It just takes three easy steps:

• Don’t steal the money;
• Get value for money
• Make sure that those that owe you money, pay you.

Housing:

We have a housing crisis in this metro. Notwithstanding the fact that it is estimated that by 2030 the metro will have a housing unit backlog of 110 000, housing delivery has come to a grinding halt.

In the year 2020/21 the metro built 27 houses. In the past financial year that ended in June, the metro constructed only 28 houses.

Whilst one out of three families in the metro has never had the dignity of owning a home, this metro has failed in facilitating housing delivery.

If we want to bestow dignity on our people, we need to start thinking out of the box when it comes to housing delivery in NMB. Apart from facilitating successful RDP-projects, given the massive demand for housing delivery in the Bay we also need to make serviced land available to beneficiaries to construct their own dwellings. We need to partner with the private sector to ensure that we can deliver affordable housing that can accommodate the gap market.

In addition, it is time that we start looking at converting empty high rise buildings in the CBD into affordable housing solutions.

Economic Development, Tourism and Agriculture (EDTA):

Nelson Mandela Bay’s economy is faced with a myriad of challenges such as:

• One of the highest unemployment rates in the country, especially amongst the youth;
• Little to no economic growth;
• Lack of business support (small and big)
• Infrastructural problems and non-existent upgrades;
• Unfavourable investment conditions; and
• Tourism that is currently non-existent due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The municipality must assist in ensuring that the economy reaches its pre-Covid-19 levels. It is essential that businesses must be prevented from closing their doors. Businesses collapsing would lead to an even higher unemployment rate and a contraction in economic growth.

NMB is considered the motor industry capital of South Africa. It is of crucial importance that we ensure that the large motor manufacturers and their suppliers are not hamstrung by infrastructure failures and that the metro has a reliable supply of water and electricity.

Nelson Mandela Bay is a key tourist destination for both local and international tourists as it is considered a cheaper alternative than other cities around the coast. There is no doubt that the tourism sector was hit the hardest of all industries by the pandemic and will need a focused plan from the municipality that ensures a fast recovery.

The revitalisation of the informal economy must be prioritised in informal settlements. This can be achieved through the Housing, Development Agency (HDA), working in conjunction with the EDTA directorate on social upliftment and skills development.

The economy only works when mechanisms are in place to provide businesses and potential investors the tools of trade that allow their businesses and investments to thrive.

It is important that the following aspects be considered as key components to allow the economy to recover and eventually grow:

• Infrastructural support (including water and power security of supply, and roads and transport)
• Housing
• Safety and Security
• Ease of doing business
• Focus on catalytic projects

Ladies and gentleman, we all deserve a competent government that can get NMB working again. NMB has got so much potential and with the right leadership, policies and determination we can once again put our metro back on track.

What the people of NMB is asking for is not impossible, all they want is the ability to live in a clean and safe environment, one where they have access to opportunities and a future for their children.

Every one of us deserves a better tomorrow and that is why the DA is so determined to establish a new government in NMB. A caring government that will be committed to building an inclusive community where we can all work and prosper.

We are determined not to allow the ANC to further sabotage the future of NMB and we are certain that our political partners will stand right beside us in this fight.

Let’s get Nelson Mandela Bay working again.

Issued by Cllr Retief Odendaal - DA NMB Mayoral Candidate