Can Odendaal bring stability to Bay?
New mayor outlines turnaround plans but says top of the agenda is sitting down with coalition partners
With just 90 minutes of shuteye, Retief Odendaal was in the mayor’s chair by 9am yesterday after a marathon council meeting that ended in the early hours of the morning.
The meeting ended just five hours before he walked into his new office at the City Hall in Gqeberha, where he was ready to hit the ground running.
In his first sit-down interview, Odendaal outlined some of the priorities his coalition partners had talked through leading up to his election.
Odendaal, 40, was a DA ward councillor for many years in Nelson Mandela Bay and later became the budget and treasury portfolio head after the 2016 local government election, serving under former mayor Athol Trollip.
He left two years later for Bhisho to become an MPL but returned in August as a PR councillor. He replaces ANC councillor Eugene Johnson, who was booted out of the mayor’s office 10 months into the job.
At the top of his agenda is sitting down with his coalition partners, meeting union representatives and making an appointment with the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber.
Odendaal was hesitant to outline his own top five priorities as he said a coalition government was in charge of the city.
“I really want us to take decisions as a collective.
“I want the coalition government to be equal partners.”
He said the party had outlined its own priorities in the past, which had left their coalition partners excluded.
“I don’t want to make the same mistakes.”
He said a turnaround plan had been drafted but the coalition agreement included key deliverables.
These include:
● Bringing back political stability;
● Building business confidence;
● Creating an integrated water supply and plugging leaks;
● Reducing the RDP housing backlog; and
● Increasing maintenance and repairs of infrastructure, while tackling vandalism.
The coalition is made up of the DA, with 48 seats, Northern Alliance (3), FF+ (2), ACDP (2), DOP (2), AIC (1), AIM (1), PAC (1), UDM (1) and GOOD (1).
AIM’s Khusta Jack takes over as deputy mayor while FF+ councillor Bill Harington is the new council chief whip.
ACDP councillor Lance Grootboom will have oversight
over the electricity and energy department, with the UDM’s Luxolo Namette taking on economic development, tourism and environmental affairs.
AIC councillor Thsonono Buyeye remains at public health, GOOD councillor Lawrence Troon at safety and security and PAC councillor Bassie Kamana at the sports and recreation portfolio.
DOP councillor Tukela Zumani has been given human settlements.
This leaves four portfolios for the DA — infrastructure and engineering, budget and treasury, corporate services, and roads and transport.
Asked about the lack of women in the top three spots, Odendaal said it was regrettable.
“The other parties have one or two seats and most are occupied by males.
“It is regrettable but it is necessary to be gender diverse.
“The DA will bear this in mind when selecting its own candidates.”
However, he said the party believed in a fit-for-purpose process.
Odendaal hoped the party’s federal executive wrapped up the selection process soon.
Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane said he was ready to work with the new coalition government.
“We are concerned about this instability in the metro and uncertainty creates policy challenges.
“The political stability has to be addressed,” he said.
But Mabuyane questioned why a woman was not part of the troika.
“We congratulate the new mayor and his team; the provincial government is ready and ever willing to make sure that we hit the ground running,” he said.
Political analyst Ongama Mtimka said Odendaal had a wealth of experience and he hoped this would help him in the job.
He said stability in the coalition was almost impossible to imagine when there were only a few votes separating the opposition parties and the governing coalition.
“The complexity of managing relationships among 10 political parties cannot be overstated.”
Odendaal won the top post with 60 votes against ANC councillor and former council chief whip Wandisile Jikeka’s 59. The coalition government has 62 seats in the council, but DA councillor Tsepo Ndwalaza logged out of the meeting he had attended virtually before the vote.
“At the end of the day, maybe a coalition partner was not 100% sure that we would topple the ANC.
“People were also intimidated at the meeting,” Odendaal said.
However, he said former deputy mayor Buyelwa Mafaya and Jikeka each received 61 votes in favour of their removal.
“We have a strong coalition, but it won’t be easy.”
Odendaal said he had plenty of institutional knowledge and would deliver his first “100 days in office” report, unlike his predecessor.
But his first concern was political stability.
“There is a link between political instability and a dysfunctional administration.
“The administration can’t work if there are fights and squabbles.”
Odendaal said he received calls from developers on a weekly basis.
“It takes years to get town planning amendments down, three-phase electricity connections.
“As a result, there is very little economic investment.
“Businesses don’t want to invest here because we have not got an open-door policy.”
Coupled with the drought, he said, businesses were not keen to invest in the metro.
“The metro has failed to manage the drought.
“Some of the water projects were budgeted for and funded by me in 2018 and they have still not been finalised by the administration.”
He said while the region was in a drought, the dams drying up was a man-made crisis.
“Our planning is not right and we are investing in the wrong infrastructure.”
Odendaal said the government intervention to assist in the drought had failed.
“We need help with best practices. We will go cap in hand and ask for skills to impart to our officials.
“We also need warm bodies and early leak detection technology.”
He said the municipality needed people out fixing leaks to stop the water losses.
On housing, Odendaal said it was time to think out of the box.
“I am embarrassed to go to communities to see how they live.
“It is shocking and sad. “For starters, we need to provide serviceable land to afford them an opportunity to build their own houses with services.”
Another idea, he said, was looking at repurposing highrise buildings.
He said the city was falling apart as a tiny percentage of the R15.8bn budget went to repairs and maintenance.
“We need to expediently increase our expenditure.
“When times are tough you can get away with not servicing your car, but eventually the engine will seize.”
Vandalism of municipal assets was a big concern.
“But we can’t afford to rebuild destroyed infrastructure.
“We need measures in place to stop this, but it will also take community buy-in.”
Odendaal recently visited the abandoned Red Location Museum and residents had asked when it was likely to be rebuilt.
“It was a difficult question that was asked. But we need value for money for this type of work.
“We can’t spend more than what something is worth.”