A New Vision for Nelson Mandela Bay

Abantu Integrity Movement (AIM) Media Statement – 30 March 2021

Good day everyone.

I stand here today, with all humility, as a resident of Nelson Mandela Bay to address a matter that has caused all of us great concern over the past decade – the rapidly deteriorating state of our Metro, the place we love, the place we call home.

I believe I echo a sentiment held by millions of people around the country when I say it is the ultimate insult to the memory of a great man, an international icon, the Father of Our Nation, that a Metro named after him has been allowed to deteriorate to the state our Metro is in today.

As we all know, President Mandela was the ultimate embodiment of selflessness – a man who was prepared to sacrifice his personal liberty and even his life to fight for a New South Africa which would usher in a better life for all.

We would have thought that those who picked up the leadership baton from him and claim to have been his comrades would at least have tried to share his values and tried to emulate what he stood for.

Unfortunately, the reality our people are experiencing today is far removed from the better life for all they have been promised at every turn by the governing party since the dawn of democracy in 1994.

The new era of hope that President Mandela ushered in 28 years ago has now been replaced by misery and despair, poverty and hunger.

The honest men and women who were prepared to sacrifice everything and even pay the ultimate price in the service of the people have been replaced by crooked politicians who think nothing of stealing from the poor, leaders who think nothing of looting public resources even in the middle of a pandemic that has hobbled the entire nation and impoverished millions of our compatriots.

Sadly, the decay we are seeing in our Metro today is only a microcosm of what is happening all over the country.

Just about everywhere you go millions of our fellow patriots are saddled with failing municipalities.

In the latest local government audit outcomes report the Auditor-General says out of 257 municipalities audited only 20 received clean audits. This means more than 90% could not account in a satisfactory manner that while spending taxpayers’ money they complied with all key rules and regulations which govern the use of public funds.

I am referring to this report to show that the rot is not only here in our Metro. As a nation we are in deep trouble.

This means that as patriots we all have a duty to make a big contribution to end this abuse of the public trust and resources.

In our instance, the current disarray in the Municipality is a shameful betrayal of everything that President Mandela fought for before he was imprisoned by the apartheid government, and everything he sought to achieve when he was leading the first administration of the democratic Republic.

Our Municipality in its official documents gives the following statement as its vision for the Metro:

“To be a globally competitive and preferred Metropole that works collectively with the people to improve lives, boost the economy, advocating zero corruption, and to have a transformed administration aimed at enhancing service delivery.”

If you were to ask residents if they would give them a P for a Pass or F for Fail based on their own stated vision, the overwhelming majority would certainly give them a double-F for gross failure.

If you were to go into any household and ask people if they think the current Administration, as it claims to do in its vision statement, actually advocates zero corruption, they would probably ask to you to leave before they lose their temper.

But when I say our Municipal administration is dysfunctional you don’t have to take my word for it. Listen to the people who know best, the governing party which has presided over the decline for many years.

The office of the MEC responsible for Local Government says their relationship with the Council has broken down. At one stage they even placed on record their desire to install an Administrator in the Metro on the grounds that the Council is dysfunctional and has been failing to deliver on its most basic responsibilities.

The people saying that have a grand name for their department – Cooperative Governance. Their primary responsibility is to ensure that public resources at the disposal of both the Provincial Government and the Municipality are utilized efficiently to improve the lives of our people.

Yet the same people who have that critical responsibility admit publicly that they have a broken relationship with the largest municipality in the province.

One sphere of government is barely on speaking terms with another. They communicate through lawyers and the courts. They don’t even blink or hesitate when it comes to spending taxpayers’ money on legal fees to fight their political battles, while they can hardly deliver basic services to the communities they were elected to serve.

As I stand here today the current Mayor has had to be elected twice in a matter of weeks, after the Provincial Government challenged his first election in court, and won – one sphere of Government taking another to court, with taxpayers’ money of course. Political self-preservation comes first to them before the interests of the people.

In just one unfinished term since they were elected to office in 2016, this dysfunctional Council has had five Mayors.

Just left that sink in for a moment – Five Mayors in just over Four Years. That has been the sad story of political instability in Nelson Mandela Bay.

The first Mayor, Atholl Trollip, had barely found his feet when he was ejected from office. Mongameli Bobani, representing a party with only two seats on the Council, also did not last long. Then Tsonono Buyeye, whose party only managed the grand total of one seat in the elections, also made an unremarkable cameo appearance as our Mayor. And now Nqaba Bhanga is practically doing a second stint in the same term of this Administration.

You may want to ask yourself where is the will of the people in this merry-go-round of musical chairs? Where is the interest of the residents who took the trouble to vote in 2016?

Is it a surprise then that our Metro is in such a serious state of decay today?

The answer to that question is that the time has come for all of us as residents and patriots to stand up and put an end to this political circus. It is time to fight for change.

For far too long we as residents have sat back and allowed self-serving politicians to preside over the decline of our Metro.

Now is the time for honest and responsible men and women to take charge, honest men and women to bring a new vision to our Municipality, honest men and women to bring hope of a new beginning to our people.

If we do not act now then we are as good as complicit in the destruction of this beautiful city-region named after President Mandela, which we love and call home.

As a matter of fact, this Metro does not belong to us. It is the inheritance of future generations. Our role is only to develop and take good care of it. But sadly it is the caretakers themselves who are at the helm of these destructive tendencies.

If we do not act now to halt the decay we will have a tough time answering when our grandchildren pose the question: What did you do in the midst of the destruction?

Of course, residents and patriots did raise their voices of dissatisfaction when they voted the African National Congress out of power in 2016.

But what all of us as voters didn’t do then was to give a firm mandate to a new force for change. For that we have all paid a heavy price over the past four years because of the political vacuum which resulted from that election outcome.

We have all witnessed the chaos, violence and political wrangling which brought the Council to a halt, and the consequences of that irresponsible behaviour as it trickled down to the Administration and resulted in the dysfunctional Municipality that is failing to manage our civic affairs effectively today.

My plea to fellow patriots today is that we dare not make that same mistake again, come the election in August.

We urgently need a change of culture in our Municipality, and we need to put in place a new force with a firm mandate which will bring about that change.

I stand here today to say to my fellow residents: I, Mkhuseli Jack, as volunteer-in-chief of AIM, humbly put up my hand to be part of that fight for real change.

I stood with them when my fellow patriots took up the fight against the crime against humanity that was apartheid. I am ready to stand again with my fellow residents as we fight against maladministration and corruption.

Nobody is going to change the dire situation in this Metro but us as residents working together. The politicians have abused our trust. Now it is time for us as residents to roll up our sleeves and take our destiny into our own hands.

It is in that spirit that I stand here today to appeal to the people of Nelson Mandela Bay to give their firm and unambiguous mandate to AIM to lead that process of renewal.

We are also making this appeal to people from the Bay who are currently located elsewhere in the country.

We say to them: In this time of difficulty your Metro needs you. In this time of adversity we need your support. Get involved in this new beginning even from a distance. Call friends and relatives back home who may have given up that things will ever change in our Metro, and motivate them to be part of this residents’ initiative.

Now let me tell you how AIM plans to introduce a major paradigm shift which will breathe new life into the way our Municipality does business.

Our departure point is clear and it will be a shock to the system of the current crop of politicians – we will separate the Council from the Administration and have clear roles and responsibilities.

The laws of the country are quite specific on this matter, that the separation of political and management roles is critical for good governance. This is spelled out clearly in particular in the PFMA, the Public Finance Management Act, and in our case the MFMA, the Municipal Finance Management Act.

But of course, as we all know rules and regulations have primarily been ignored over the past decade as corrupt politicians and crooked officials merrily helped themselves to the public purse.

The MFMA states clearly that the Mayor and the Mayoral Committee are expected to provide political leadership by proposing policies, guiding the development of budgets and overseeing their implementation.

In executing their duties they may not use their position or confidential information at their disposal for private gain, that’s what the law says. But did any politician bother to read the regulations over the past ten years of State corruption? Clearly no.

The MFMA goes on to say managers in a municipality hold the primary legal responsibility for financial management and are responsible for the implementation of projects. They have a duty to act with honesty and integrity – let me repeat that word, Integrity – and are supposed to act at all times in the best interest of the municipality.

The Act says the role of councillors as elected representatives of the community is to debate and approve proposed policies and budgets, and also oversee the performance of the municipality. They are also supposed to hold both the Mayor and Mayoral Committee as well senior managers in the administration accountable for performance through quarterly and annual reports.

But after four solid years of political chaos in the Council, and even physical violence, do you think our councillors have had any opportunity to perform this task?
Of course not.

Instead of staying in their lane and performing the function they were elected for, they have managed to blur the lines of responsibility and started coercing honest men and women in the employ of the Municipality to bend the rules so they can achieve their nefarious objectives.

That’s where the gridlock starts in the delivery of services to our people. While the infrastructure is crumbling there’s a delay in awarding contracts for service work, budgets are not spent efficiently because politicians are getting in the way, busy using their power to try and ensure that their cronies get awarded lucrative contracts.
Let me share with you an anecdote which best illustrates what I am talking about, and the serious service delivery mess our Municipality is in.

There was an article in the newspaper the other day with a headline that said: “Metro Losing the Battle Against Potholes”. (Herald 23/9/2020)

The report was about the alarming rate at which the Metro’s roads are deteriorating.

The Executive Director responsible for Infrastructure was quoted as saying:

• The situation had come about because the Municipality’s trucks and other equipment required for the job are old and are in the workshop much of the time.
• At that point, which was a few months ago, the Municipality had managed to spend only about 20% of its R12 million budget for contractors to help fix potholes, because tenders were stuck in the bid adjudicating committees in the supply chain management process.

Now, here’s the most senior official in the responsible department saying yes we know there is a problem of crumbling infrastructure, yes the budget is there but we are unable to spend it to fix the problem because the bids by contractors are stuck in the adjudicating committees.

I am sure you are ware that residents in some parts of the Metro have now taken to using their own resources to build speedhumps in their neighbourhoods. Others are using their own money to paint pedestrian crossings for the safety of their children. That’s how bad things have become.

Residents have been driven to a point of desperation by lack of service delivery while the Municipality is sitting with unspent budgets because politicians are busy bickering over which of their cronies should be awarded contracts.

Now, in response to community anger, we see the Mayor suddenly running around posing for the cameras while supervising workmen who are fixing potholes. But that’s not his job. His job is to demand answers and take stern action when responsible officials fail to do their work. His job is to demand answers why residents have to spend their own money to paint pedestrian crossings while the Municipality is sitting with unspent budgets, and contracts for the work are stuck in the bid committees.

When residents give us a firm mandate AIM will put an end to all of that.

We will send to the Council men and women with integrity who will be driven by one objective – to put the interests of the residents first in whatever decisions need to be taken.

Our vision is inspired by the words of the late Auditor-General, Mr Kimi Makwetu (may his soul rest in peace).

After finishing his seven-year term, and in what turned out to be the last professional assignment of his life, Mr Makwetu wrote the following in the current municipal audit outcomes report, which is an annual report to Parliament on the state of local government in the country:

“The safe and clean hands that can be relied upon to look after public finances in local government are few and far between….

There is little to go around yet we have the wrong hands at the till.”

That’s what the man wrote: we have the wrong hands at the till.

And he would have known. He spent seven years of his life as the chief auditor of all the municipalities in the country. Year in and year out he presented the same horrific report to Parliament, raising a red flag about the squandering of billions of rands in public resources by crooked politicians acting with impunity because they never got to face any consequences.

As AIM we are ready to contribute our bit to help turn the ship around and put our Metro back on track.

The key pillars of our vision are spelled out in our 10-Point Plan of Action.

1. City-region vision:

It starts off with the drive to implement our plan which will guide the development of our Metro into a business and lifestyle city-region of choice.

2. Council:

If residents should give us a firm mandate our first major step will be to put in place a credible and competent Council of public representatives which will focus on working for the residents’ best interests as its foremost objective.

The merry-go-round of musical chairs and political circus that has been going on there for years will stop the day after we are elected.

Our Councillors will be answerable directly to the residents and not to any political party. In the unlikely event that someone fails to live up to that standard they will unfortunately have to stand down from the Council.

3. Municipality:

A key point of our Plan of Action is to create an enabling environment for the emergence of a professional, customer-focused municipal administration and workforce which will put service to the people first.

The Municipality employs thousands of honest men and women many of whom over the years have found themselves in a toxic work environment where they barely have the space to put their professional skills to good use.

They are bullied and pressured by corrupt politicians and crooked senior officials. We will create a healthy working environment where employees will rediscover the inspiration to do their work diligently and be motivated and proud to serve the people of the Metro.

4. Service delivery and infrastructure development:

We cannot put this Metro back on track without jacking up service delivery and ramping up maintenance and development of the infrastructure so that it meets the needs of residents, current business operators and potential investors.

The delivery of basic services is a legal obligation in terms of Sections 152 and 153 of the Constitution of the Republic.

Dysfunctional municipalities like our own which fail to prioritize and deliver on that obligation are clearly in breach of the law and are violating the rights of the very citizens whose interests they are supposed to serve.

5. Economic development:

In this era of the Covid-19 pandemic which has hammered the national economy and decimated millions of jobs, economic development is the centre-piece of our recovery plan.

We need to leverage all our assets, natural attributes, built infrastructure and residents’ talents to reboot the local economy and create jobs for our people.

We should consider ourselves fortunate to call home a Metro which has the economic infrastructure of Nelson Mandela Bay. Two ports at Ngqurha and here in the city, an airport which has international status, a multi-billion rand industrial facility at the Coega Special Economic Zone, a manufacturing industry that is looking to thrive even in this tough business climate, an existing rail network to the hinterland, to mention just a few of those attributes.

Unfortunately, we have also been cursed with a political leadership that lacks vision, a leadership that only wakes up to promise grand vanity projects only during election campaigns.

When residents give us the mandate we are going to meet with both domestic business groups and potential international investors to assure them that a new investment-friendly Metro is in the making. Our mission is to facilitate inclusive economic growth which will benefit both investors and our communities.

We will take Nelson Mandela Bay back to its glorious past when it was a proud global city and an investment-friendly destination, the days when many international companies operated factories and other businesses here.

6. Community development:

The Covid pandemic has exacerbated what was already a dire economic situation in many communities. Aggravated hardship often leads to a collapse of the social fabric and that in turn creates a breeding ground for criminal activities.

AIM plans to implement programmes that will ensure the development of safe, secure, and healthy communities, including a focus on moral regeneration particularly to address the rising scourge of criminality.

We will ensure that every rand budgeted for community development is spent for that purpose and not lost to corruption.

7. Environmental stewardship:

In this era of climate change it is particularly critical that all municipal business is conducted in a manner that is eco-sensitive and protects our environment for the benefit of future generations. This includes a commitment to both sustainable development and collective stewardship of the city-region’s natural resources that ensures community participation.

We will take our people with us on this journey with educational programmes because major pollution problems that develop to threaten the future of our environment start with small seemingly insignificant habits such as littering.

While today we may be happy to “throw away” things we may soon come to realise there is no place called “away”. There is only one Earth.

8. Fiscal discipline:

AIM plans to manage the Municipality’s financial resources prudently and adhere to clearly defined budgetary and performance management objectives.

We all know that State corruption is now a national emergency and the second pandemic after Covid. Crooked politicians will continue to chance their hand because in the past they have operated with impunity and have never had to face any consequences.

AIM deems it critical that every rand that the Municipality generates in revenue collection or is allocated from the national fiscus must be spent in a prudent manner for the benefit of all residents and is not lost to corruption.

In the last financial year alone municipalities across the country lost more than R2 billion to fruitless and wasteful expenditure, and R32 billion was flagged as irregular expenditure where proper procurement processes were not followed.

On our watch no dodgy tenders in our Municipality will be negotiated in the shadows or dark corners with politically connected individuals.

Every interested business will get a fair shot at doing business with the Municipality based on their demonstrable track record and capacity to do the job. Losing bidders will walk away satisfied that they took part in a transparent selection process.

I would like to take this opportunity to give advance warning to those who have been involved in nefarious activities in our Municipality that consequence management will start the day after we are elected.

Responsible officials will have a lot of explaining to do for any transaction flagged by the Auditor-General as wasteful, fruitless, irregular or unauthorised, and there will be serious consequences for guilty parties.

9. Youth development:

It almost sounds like a cliché, but the youth are indeed the future of this Metro.

AIM plans to drive programmes that will keep them off the streets and out of the courts of law. We will place a major focus on skills development, sports participation and a range of activities in the creative industries, providing them with a resource base that allows them to seek out future opportunities.

We will use our recreational and heritage assets to promote the quest for professional excellence across all demographics of our community.

It cannot be that young people can be allowed to slip into a state of hopelessness in a Metro that has produced the likes of world-class actors such as John Kani and Winston Ntshona, the World Cup-winning Springbok captain Siya Kolisi and lately the rising star of the world of garment design Laduma Ngxokolo.

10. External relations:

This is an area that has been recklessly neglected by the current Administration.

I have already referred to their toxic relationship with the Provincial Government. Even worse, they have also neglected the business community, the very people who are expected to invest their resources in our local economy so we can create jobs and improve the lives of our people.

In a recent business satisfaction survey which they commissioned themselves the Municipality scored dismally.

The majority of respondents pointed out that political instability, bureaucracy and red tape were stifling development in the Metro, and lamented the fact that doing business here was becoming more difficult. The business environment is unconducive to a point of driving potential investors away, they said.

AIM’s plan is to enhance and maintain relations with all key stakeholders. Our vision of creating a best-practice city-region and an investor-friendly destination will only come to fruition on the back of major contributions by all sectors.

I close, Programme Director, by reiterating that AIM’s commitment to the people of Nelson Mandela Bay and fellow patriots elsewhere is rooted in the central pillar of our name – integrity.

To clean out the current rot and usher in a new era of good governance and a clean administration we need men and women with integrity who will serve the people of the Metro in an honest and selfless way.

I stand here today to make an undertaking that we will find those people who will work with us to save Nelson Mandela Bay from the scourge of corruption and maladministration. Some of them already put up their hands even before we launched our Movement, and more will be coming on board now that there is a special-purpose vehicle to work for change.

The sun in our logo rising over Nelson Mandela Bay foretells a new era.

We as AIM, working together with the people of the Metro, will find the safe and clean hands that Mr Makwetu wrote about, to be at the till in our Municipality,

We undertake that in this period of severe hardship brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, we will ensure that of the little there is to go around, every rand is spent prudently in order to benefit even more of our people.

The new era of change and renewal starts now.

I thank you.

Issued by:
AIM Communications Department
Voice calls and WhatsApp: 0812505464
Email: media@aim4change.org.za
Web Site: https://aim4change.org.za

ABOUT AIM:
AIM is a movement formed by concerned residents of Nelson Mandela Bay to put an end to corruption and maladministration in the Municipality and improve service delivery to all the people of the Metro.
AIM seeks to implement a new vision which will help develop our Metro into a business and lifestyle city-region of choice.
AIM is not affiliated to any political party. It is an independent initiative driven by residents and is answerable directly to all the people of Nelson Mandela Bay.

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