Nelson Mandela Bay
(Photo: Deon Ferreira) 
Nelson Mandela Bay ratepayers will, from July, pay more for property rates – 5% more for water, 5% more for sewage services and 5.5% more for refuse services.
The council has yet to hear from the National Energy Regulator (Nersa) about whether it has approved the metro’s request for further increase of 12.8% in electricity tariffs.
Read more: Nelson Mandela Bay seesaws on rates as council battles to pass 2025/26 budget
Speaker Eugene Johnson first announced that the budget was passed by 64 yes votes to 56 no votes. But the leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the metro, Rano Kayser, said the count was impossible as the council has three vacancies – meaning 120 sitting councillors were not present. The African Christian Democratic Party’s (ACDP) Lance Grootboom said there were indeed four vacancies, so a maximum of 116 councillors could vote.
Johnson then corrected the count saying it was 61 in favour of the budget and 51 against. But that came to only 112 councillors.
Speaking in favour of the budget, the African National Congress’s (ANC) Xolani Notshe said wards without infrastructure where an increasing number of people are settling when they arrive in the city, known as receiving wards, must be allocated bigger budgets as they need more investment for basic services.
“This budget is seeking to leave nobody behind,” he said. “It will improve lives. It is not the best, but it is what we can afford.”
He said there was a fair distribution of ward-based capital budgets between the different areas in Nelson Mandela Bay.
He added that it was recommended that the budgeting process start earlier to avoid this year’s chaos. He added that if services are not delivered after the passing of the budget, it will compromise their government’s integrity.
He said the ANC was deeply concerned about the electricity and water revenue losses in the city and said it wanted to reach the ideal revenue collection rate of 95% demanded by the Treasury. The city’s collection rate is currently 72%.
He added that while maintenance budgets are not yet at the percentages prescribed by the Treasury, the metro’s problem is that there are no maintenance plans.
He called for accountability in implementing the Municipal Public Accounts Committee’s plan given to council.
“It should be in every department’s bible,” Notshe said.
Councillor Khanyisa Mani, also from the ANC, said there must be stringent consequence management in the metro’s administration.
ANC councillor Luyanda Lawu, whose ward received the largest capital budget, said he wanted to dispel the narrative that the ANC wards got more in the current budget.
He said money was taken from his ward’s draft budget to pay for the electrification of a DA ward.
“But yet the DA rejects this budget,” he said.
He said part of the budget was also allocated to address food insecurity in some of the wards, including the Bayland informal settlement, where the municipality allocated R430,000 for a food garden.
Executive Mayor Babalwa Lobishe said the budget was structured in such a way to safeguard the metro’s reserve funds.
“I have overemphasised already that we are going to deal with improving the metro’s revenue collection,” she said.
‘Exploitation’
Bill Harrington from the Freedom Front Plus warned the coalition government that it cannot “demand more and deliver less”.
“That is exploitation,” he said.
“There are suburbs in this metro where water leaks have become part of the scenery. Waste removal has become a hit and miss. This is nothing more than a desperate attempt by a desperate government – a short-term survivalist plan that will cripple households,” he said. “We want a metro that works, not one that bleeds its taxpayers dry,” he said.
The ACDP’s Lance Grootboom said: “I rise as a councillor, father, husband and resident and a voice for the people of Nelson Mandela Bay. This is a budget that breaks people.”
He called the increases in property taxes and the proposed increase in electricity “daylight robbery”.
“Hopes are fading because of this budget,” he said. “There is no justification to charge more but deliver less. Behind the numbers are screams of betrayal.”
He added that residents are being forced to cover the “black hole” of the electricity department, which was running at a R1.8-billion deficit.
“This is a crisis of conscience,” Grootboom added.
The Patriotic Alliance did not support the budget, citing the neglect of wards in Nelson Mandela Bay’s Northern Areas and Kariega.
The leader of the National Alliance and deputy executive mayor Gary van Niekerk said the party will support the budget “amidst all the chaos”.
‘Challenges’
“We acknowledge the challenges but if you listen to the opposition you will swear it is doomsday in our metro. You will believe it is the end of days here within two weeks.”
Van Niekerk is currently standing trial on charges of defrauding the metro by recruiting lawyers pretending the work was for the municipality when it was for his own party purposes. He has protested his innocence and said that he was acting in defence of the Office of the Speaker.
The United Democratic Movement’s Luxolo Namette, the chairperson of the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC), said this was a budget born in difficult times but it is a “determined effort to turn the tide”.
He too sounded the alarm on the deficit in the electricity department that currently stands at R1.3-billion.
“A recovery plan must be adopted,” he said.
“I want to warn officials that where there is laziness, manipulations of the system or corruption, MPAC is coming for you,” he said.
Criminal charges
Lawrence Troon from Good said he had opened a criminal case against senior officials on Wednesday, 18 June, after he received information of corruption in the metro’s collections department.
“As I speak there is much unhappiness there. They are on a go-slow of their own. Their morale is low. Unqualified people are put in positions,” he said.
He said “deals are made” in the collections department at the expense of political parties.
“Poor people’s electricity is cut off and nothing happens to multi-millionaires,” he said.
His party nonetheless supported the budget.
The DA voted against the budget.
DA councillor Margaret de Andrade said officials sent to her ward’s integrated development plan meeting were totally incompetent and couldn’t answer any questions.
“Is this metro going to treat residents in this disrespectful way?” she asked.
Other speakers from the DA also pointed out that the metro was regressing in its assessment by the provincial government.
Kayer said even if politics were left out of the budget, the numbers still made no sense.
“It is a deficit budget. We ask our residents to pay more and give less service,” he added.
Werner Senekal, also of the DA, added that the budget was drawn up on an assumed collection rate of 76% while the city was only collecting 72% of rates.
“We are budgeting for failure.”
He added that the spending of conditional grants remained woeful.
“There is no turnaround plan for water and electricity, but we are asking consumers to fill the gap for inefficiencies,” he said.
Teslin Booysen added that injustice towards residents of the Northern Areas could not be allowed to continue.
“It is unacceptable that service delivery is so bad,” he said. He said the current government was treating the residents of the Northern Areas as second-class citizens. DM