Political interference ‘out’
Metro won’t be undermined by anybody, Jordaan says on national TV
NELSON Mandela Bay mayor Danny Jordaan has vowed there will be no political interference in the municipality when it comes to appointing new staff.
Jordaan was speaking at the New Age Business Briefing yesterday at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.
He unpacked the province’s Back to Basics campaign, aimed at accelerating service delivery in the city.
“The city manager runs the municipality and accounts to us. If he gets instructions from outside, there will be a problem.
“We are not going to be undermined by the city manager – or anybody, for that matter,” he said.
Jordaan’s reply came after a question from an audience member who asked how he would stop political interference.
Jordaan’s announcement comes after the Port Elizabeth High Court ordered the municipality to pay former city boss Lindiwe MsenganaNdlela R3-million in May.
She had sued the municipality, saying she had been forced to resign just five months into her contract as she could not cope with the political pressure and veiled threats of violence by then mayor Ben Fihla and his deputy, Chippa Ngcolomba.
Jordaan said: “The past six weeks have been quite a challenge because we have been analysing the situation . . . focusing on accelerating service delivery, which is part of the campaign.”
He said the metro had also engaged with the national government to source funding for infrastructure programmes.
“We have a serious shortage of engineers in the metro and we hope through negotiations with the national government that we will improve water and sanitation and also [acquire] skills to accelerate service delivery.
“We have to come up with skills retention strategies to make sure [young people] re- main in our city and the province,” he said.
He said the municipality believed the business sector would assist in turning the metro around.
“This is why when we came here in May we said we could not table a budget with a R400-million deficit . . . we had to have a small surplus. We also strengthened the mayoral committee.”
Jordaan was flanked by Eastern Cape premier Phumulo Masualle, Buffalo City mayor Alfred Mtsi and Cooperative Governance MEC Fikile Xasa.
Masualle said the Eastern Cape would be a different province in the next seven years if the Back to Basics campaign was implemented properly in the two metros.
“We are a province at work. The experience of local government must be pleasant for the ordinary person. This means we must ensure that we improve capacity to deliver services,” Masualle said.
To achieve good governance, the premier said, there should be political stability in municipalities.
“Municipalities must take decisive actions and implement forensic reports that have been tabled in council.
“People who are fingered in the reports must be disciplined and return what was taken from the people,” Masualle said.