DA plans to restore pride in Mandela Bay

NELSON Mandela Bay is a city of great potential, yet it is currently broken and dysfunctional.

We stagger from one political crisis to another, with the result that our city administration has become all but inoperative.

Service delivery to our people is at an all-time low.

Compared to other metros, our growth rate is virtually stagnant, we are burdened with the highest unemployment rate of all metros in South Africa: the official unemploy- ment figure given by StatsSA is 36.6% for 2011.

What has happened to Nelson Mandela Bay? There is largely a lack of any coherent vision by our political leaders.

Nelson Mandela Bay was a prosperous place. In the past, intellectual leaders within the governing party such as Nceba Faku, Nondumiso Maphazi, and Bicks Ndoni outlined a clear vision for this city. Sadly, that vision is long gone.

That vision was destroyed by more recent ANC cadres in council, who continue to put self-interest above the interests of our city and its people. Ironically, as the DA convene in the city this weekend to elect a new national leadership that will take the party to new heights, President Jacob Zuma and other ANC top officials flew into the Bay, in yet another attempt to “save” the ANC from itself ahead of next year’s local government elections.

What a pity that the ruling party yet again got it wrong by choosing to focus inwardly towards their own institutional and political problems, rather than finding solutions to the many challenges that are facing our metro and its residents.

The DA has a vision of prosperity for this city backed by tested plans and competent individuals to implement our recipe for success.

The DA also has the fortune of a very successful record in government in Cape Town, that has allowed us to devise the best plans to turn around Nelson Mandela Bay. Some of the plans focus specifically on:

Law enforcement and the formation of a fully functional metro police. We will base our metro police on the highly successful Cape Town model. The redesign and implementation of a feasible, reliable integrated public transport system (IPTS) for the city.

The establishment of sub-councils has worked extremely well in Cape Town, allowing residents direct access to council – a model that the DA will bring to the Bay.

We will change the way Nelson Mandela Bay hands out tenders and contracts. Under a DA government many more SMMEs will benefit from our system of transparent and open tender processes

The DA is putting together a highly competent team to govern this city in 2016.

Retief Odendaal DA Leader of the Opposition, NMBM