Tick-tock … what Ramaphosa’s speech on local government means for Nelson Mandela Bay

On Monday, President Cyril Ramaphosa, speaking in his capacity as the leader of the ANC, told more than 4,000 ANC ward councillors that their “marching orders” were that they must be the first to know what is happening in their areas and that service delivery issues must be fixed “within 48 hours”.

He set out the six pillars of the party’s plan to revitalise local government.

Pillar 1: Tackle core service delivery commitments to citizens: water, sanitation, refuse removals, potholes, electricity and human settlements.

Ramaphosa said he was repurposing a phrase used by the Youth League. “Service delivery or death,” he said, emphasising that water and sewage leaks, and potholes, must be fixed. “It is unacceptable that we, as ward councillors, do nothing. We must be the first to know. Your marching orders today… where there is a water leak, where there is a sewage leak, these must be fixed within 48 hours.

“It must get to the point where we say: I am not going to sleep until the sewage or the water leak has been attended to. It must never come from the newspaper,” he continued. “It must come from you. You must have a clear plan.”

Nelson Mandela Bay’s reality: Service delivery in the Infrastructure and Engineering Department – that’s water, sewage and electricity – has been at an all-time low for the past few days as workers refused to work overtime because of a council resolution restricting overtime.

As a result, areas such as Theescombe, KwaNobuhle, Motherwell and surrounding areas were left without electricity for days. Bad weather in Nelson Mandela Bay also left a large area in the metro without electricity on Tuesday. This included two of the city’s business hubs, Summerstrand and Walmer. 

The issue of overtime has not been resolved and metro spokesperson Sithembiso Soyaya said: “There has been ongoing engagement between the municipality, organised labour and affected employees to ensure that the implementation of the overtime payment threshold is normalised and does not negatively affect critical service delivery.” 

He said the threshold for workers qualifying for overtime had been set by National Treasury and was an official decision by the council. In addition, the electricity department was running at a deficit of more than R1-billion due to electricity losses and theft. The metro was also losing about half of its water through leaks and water theft.

Pillar 2: Effective and sustainable infrastructure: ensure proper budget spending and improve capacity for maintenance, prevent vandalism, among other things.

Nelson Mandela Bay’s reality: Thousands of streetlights are out of order in Nelson Mandela Bay. During a meeting with civil society and church leaders in the metro a month ago the mayor said they were negotiating service level agreements – after years of complaints. She admitted that there were several delays in the process to renew contracts and that measures had been introduced to anticipate the expiry dates of contracts and get procedures in place before then. An estimated 100 service delivery contracts are currently not in place, including for water leaks and grass cutting.

Pillar 3: Reconnect with the people and restore trust and accountability

Nelson Mandela Bay’s reality: Even if councillors want to connect they can’t because the city’s phones, including those for the ward councillors, have been cut off due to nonpayment of R9.6-million. It appears that despite the “ongoing engagement” referred to by Soyaya, the service provider’s invoices didn’t align with the City’s billing requirements. As a result there are currently no landlines and no operational call centre in the city. 

The R75: For years the robots on the R75 – crucial at dangerous intersections to prevent accidents and make it safer for pedestrians – have not been working. Despite assurances that these robots will be fixed “soon”, this has not been done.

Cape Road: Seven traffic lights, damaged in car accidents, on Cape Road, one of Nelson Mandela Bay’s busiest roads, have not been replaced or removed and have been vandalised because the team responsible did not have a bakkie to collect them.

This pothole: Not metres from where another pothole is likely to cost ratepayers thousands of rands after a family sued the municipality, this pothole in Greenfields has been left unattended for months. 

Pillar 4. Capable local government and institutional capacity: financial management, debt, billing systems, bylaw enforcement, employ capable people and fill critical vacancies, war on corruption.

The current city manager, Noxolo Nqwazi, was put on precautionary suspension in late 2023 and again in early 2024, pending disciplinary action against her.

Read more: Conflict-riddled Nelson Mandela Bay places city manager on precautionary suspension

The disciplinary hearing against her has been put on hold pending negotiations for a settlement, but National Treasury has refused to approve a departure which would allow a settlement to be paid, suggesting that the disciplinary proceedings should first be pursued to completion.

However, according to an opinion requested from a senior advocate in Nelson Mandela Bay, Olav Ronaasen SC, there is little chance of the disciplinary hearing against her succeeding. 

As a result there has been no stable and predictable environment for businesses to invest in. In addition to not having a city manager, several key leadership positions in the metro are vacant, while positions for artisans with technical skills remain unfilled. Other requirements for investment, such as safety and security and a consistent electricity supply, remain questionable, as do the cleanliness of the city and infrastructure management, the proliferation of vandalism and dangerous and dark roads.

The current deputy mayor, Gary van Niekerk, is on trial for fraud and contravening the Municipal Finance Management Act. He travelled to Germany, partially on municipal money, to a conference and did not attend the start of his trial last week. 

A warrant for his arrest was issued but held over pending his court appearance in October. There was a recommendation from the council that he either be suspended or removed from council due to the gravity of internal charges that he was convicted of, but MEC for cooperative governance Zolile Williams chose to keep him in place.

Pillar 5. Inclusive Local economic development and jobs: strengthen conditions for investments in local industry and jobs, support SMMEs and cooperatives, township enterprises, expand public and private employment, develop skills. 

Speaking about this pillar of the plan, Ramaphosa said it was vital that this was done to encourage investment by businesses. “Ask yourself if any business will invest here,” he said. “Investors are attracted to towns and cities that work.”

Nelson Mandela Bay’s reality: There is no governance stability. The city has had acting city managers since 2023 when Nqwazi was suspended after being arrested by the Hawks for corruption. The contract of current acting city manager Ted Pillay ends at the end of September.

About businesses that are invested in cities and towns, Ramaphosa said: “You must please them and ensure that they stay in the city. Councils must attract business and reduce red tape. When there is economic growth everyone benefits.”

It pained him to see that the best run municipalities in the country were controlled by the DA. “I can name it here because there is nothing wrong with competition. They are DA-controlled. What is it that they [the DA] are doing? There is nothing wrong with us saying we want to go and see what Cape Town is doing, what Stellenbosch is doing?” he said.

Ramaphosa stressed that they expect compliance with audit regulations as well as supply chain management and added that councillors must appoint competent people who can do the jobs needed by municipalities – the “most capable, most committed and most honest”. 

The Nelson Mandela Bay reality: In February the Auditor-General delivered a stern and damning report on how Nelson Mandela Bay has been run as the metro regressed to a qualified audit. 

In the 2022/23 financial year the metro received its first unqualified opinion in 12 years. In 2023/24 it regressed to a qualified audit. This was despite claims by former mayor Van Niekerk, now the deputy mayor, that Treasury officials had “applauded them” for their work. 

Issues highlighted by Auditor-General senior manager Thembela Mseleni included:

• Vacant positions are not being filled and personnel in some departments have not received all the training they should have;
• The metro’s wastewater treatment plants do not have valid licences, including the large Fishwater Flats facility where a disastrous spill in December closed down New Brighton Beach; and
• One of the landfills at iBhayi is in contravention of its permit conditions and the Environmental Management Act, and less than 10% of the site has been rehabilitated, while the rest is illegally occupied by an informal settlement.

Pillar 6. Strategic communications: communicate challenges, interventions and implementation.

The Nelson Mandela Bay reality: In a letter to Ramaphosa, mayor Babalwa Lobishe, who is clearly on the offensive, wrote that she has “requested management capacity” to deal with the following issues in the metro. She was responding to a damning letter from church leaders in the metro asking for the municipal council to be disbanded and a competent administrator appointed. 

• Persistent noncompliance with legislation, including irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure caused by lapses in supply chain management;
• The mismanagement of deviations under supply chain management regulations;
• Concerning findings on consequence management;
• Material misstatements in the submitted Annual Financial Reports;
• Failure to deal with 80% of the previous financial year’s audit recommendations; and
• Absence of a strong ethical culture in the metro.

She stressed in her letters that these are not the actions of someone who doesn’t understand the problems in the metro.

“None of us does not appreciate the enormity of the challenges we face,” she said.

In his speech Ramaphosa said councillors must restore trust in their communities and not be defensive. He encouraged councillors to share with communities if they made “bad decisions”. 

“We must restore trust,” he said. DM