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The Patriotic Alliance (PA) has yet again proved that they are not interested in rescuing the residents of Nelson Mandela Bay by again voting to keep the ANC/EFF coalition in power.

Despite PA president, Gayton McKenzie's talk and bravado about leaving ANC coalitions and joining the DA and its partners in the Multi-Party Charter for South Africa, when given the opportunity to remove the ANC in Nelson Mandela Bay, they chose to vote with the ANC/EFF coalition.

Yesterday, 22 August 2023, at a council meeting in Gqeberha, the PA had the opportunity to act and put the residents of the Metro first by voting to remove Gary van Niekerk from the ANC proxy, the National Alliance (NA), as Nelson Mandela Bay mayor. But true to form, they decided to support their political masters.

This again proves that McKenzie is speaking with a forked tongue when he says that the PA is willing to walk away from the ANC to join the Moonshot pact.

Since the current ANC/EFF/NA/PA coalition took over government in May of this year, service delivery in the Metro has ground to a halt as a result of self serving decisions.

National Treasury is currently withholding nearly R800 million in grant funding from the Metro because of the controversial appointment of the MBDA CEO. If NMB does not receive this money soon, all major infrastructure projects will grind to a halt.

Service delivery is in a downward spiral, residents suffer due to constant water and electricity outages, potholes riddle our roads, sewage flows in the streets, streetlights are not working, and the Metro is dirty.

The current coalition is causing untold suffering to our residents, but still the PA sides with the ANC and EFF for the sake of political expedience.

During the eight months that the DA coalition under Executive Mayor Retief Odendaal governed the Metro great strides were made towards turning the fortunes of Nelson Mandela Bay around.

The successes speak for themselves and included:

• More than 14 000 water leaks repaired.
• More than 20 000 potholes repaired.
• 1700 title deeds handed over.
• More than 15 000 streetlights were repaired.
• Amended the ATTP policy to make free basic services more accessible to residents in need.
• Stopped over-extraction of the dams to prevent Day Zero.
• Created nearly 5000 EPWP job opportunities
• Constructed 500 RDP-houses

The DA will not allow further hardship to be brought on the residents of Nelson Mandela Bay, we are in your corner fighting for you.

Issued by Cllr Georgina Faldtman - DA EC Provincial Spokesperson and NMB Caucus Chief Whip