Jordaan needs to stay focused

IT is indisputable that mayor Danny Jordaan is the best incumbent the ANC has appointed to lead the Nelson Mandela Bay metro since the party won the 2011 local government elections.

In his first 100 days as mayor he has achieved much. From ensuring our city’s coffers are in good standing to bringing the council closer to the people it serves, to ensuring that corruption and incompetence is finally dealt with by the suspension of 17 officials.

He has achieved this with the help of a new mayoral committee who have hit the ground running.

The unassuming deputy mayor, Bicks Ndoni, has been quietly doing the business of listening to and providing leadership to disaffected communities from Helenvale to Motherwell to Walmer township.

Economic development portfolio chairman Zukile Jodwana has been working with business to see how to attract investments to the city, and getting agencies like the Uitenhage Despatch Development Initiative, Mandela Bay Development Agency and Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism to work.

Rory Riordan has kept a beady eye on the purse strings and ensuring the city’s finances are in good standing.

Chief whip Litho Suka has been corralling a divided ANC caucus into a unified force.

While Jordaan can take much credit for his achievements, he should not fall into the political death trap of hubris.

As analyst Dr Mcebisi Ndletyana cautioned, Jordaan needs to acknowledge the role of his ANC colleagues in the regional task team in fixing the mess that years of neglect and cronyism left the city in.

While he might dismiss the carping of DA federal chairman Athol Trollip, who desperately wants his job, Jordaan needs to realise that his party is facing its biggest political challenge since it lost Cape Town.

As the by-election result in Veeplaas showed, the DA is not the only threat. Being mayor of a city on a knife-edge is no easy task. Even though the ANC is relying on him to secure its victory in next year’s elections, Jordaan has to stay focused on getting the city working – and that means taking some heed of the concerns of the unions, opposition parties and big business.