Pay attention to northern areas
“CLEARY Park in lockdown as looters go on rampage, Windvogel/Cleary Park closed by burning tyres, police shooting rubber bullets and chasing protesters.”
Sadly true, but one has to dig deeper and ask why and what triggered this all.
Reports came in of looters targeting a liquor store in Cleary Park Shopping Centre as well as having a number of other businesses’ in their sights during this time.
At one stage fatalities seemed inevitable as bullets were fired and vehicles pelted.
It seems evident that the buildup to this incident started over the past weekend when electricity cables were being cut in the Helenvale area followed by a citizens’ roadblock earlier in the morning.
Roads were closed and then the situation escalated to other parts of the northern areas.
Vehicles and police vans were pelted with stones, and police had to respond.
At one point I sadly started to wonder in fear of the possibility that a situation like the 1990s might be repeated.
Images and reports on social media indicated a volatile situation possibly escalating into widespread mass action, violent protests and mass business premises looting.
Safe and glad to say, this did not happen.
But then one has to be mindful and consider the possible brewing of a subconscious anger and frustration of a people feeling that they are being neglected and not listened to or considered as the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality grapples with its own internal squabbles.
Our people have proven themselves to be a patient and tolerant people for many years.
This internal municipal squabble emanates from the overtime standoff between municipal officials and their executive, and on the other hand there is the internal battle of the position of deputy mayor, consuming the time of the very same people who should ensure that service delivery goes ahead unhindered. Mayor Athol Trollip should seriously consider whether he and his partners are not losing sight of their mandate.
During his campaign, the mayor and his entourage promised change and said it was time for change.
That change seems only to be in the municipal administration and the change seems to be every second month, in terms of deployment and positional changes within the mayor’s administration team, but no change to the lives of the ordinary citizen of Nelson Mandela Bay.
The spat between the municipality and its workers over overtime pay and the subsequent standoff, which first affected water supply to some areas, spilled over into electricity, which left hundreds without electricity for a few days.
The power outages caused havoc in Helenvale and residents pelted stones in frustration at passing cars and police.
This action is never to be justified, neither so the inability of the municipality to ensure smooth delivery of essential services.
It seems like policy changes in terms of overtime work and payment of these workers are central to the dispute, but this should not be a matter affecting the consumers, which include pensioners, disabled residents and the vulnerable.
The municipality has to get its house in order to save us from an explosive situation.
We are nearing the December holiday season, which is historically a time of thanksgiving and family gatherings, and electricity outages of this nature are totally unacceptable.
If the standoff prevails, we face a possible chaotic situation, and unless Trollip listens and heeds advice, he might soon sit without a metro to run.
Trollip’s priority should not be to “pinpoint instigators”, but to prioritise the solution and what gave rise to alleged sabotaging of power installations. An affective and effective management administration would not face standoffs of this nature, which ultimately results in community and consumer suffering.
Nelson Mandela Bay, in particular the northern areas, does not need this kind of maltreatment amid our impoverished lives our people have to endure.
Change has yet to come and at the current rate the municipality is going, that change seems a very distant dream.
Christian Martin, ANC MPL, Bhisho