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Executive Mayor announces Mayoral Committee

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Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality’s Executive Mayor Benson Fihla announced his Mayoral Committee during a full sitting of Council today.

Eight out of the nine councillors who will now take charge as political heads of the respective directorates served on this important body previously. Cllr Mbuyiseli Mkavo, who is considered to be a strategic thinker and a hard worker, is the only newcomer.

Before announcing the names, Executive Mayor Fihla said that he started serious engagements with some of the relevant stakeholders who raised some serious issues that the municipality must deal with.

We need to ensure that we develop the necessary capacity to deal with the concerns raised.

“Knowing very well that a lot more needs to be done, I hereby present to you a team that we will be working with and that will advise and ensure together with me and the Deputy Executive Mayor business as usual is over,” Mayor Fihla said.

The Mayoral Committee members are:

  1. Economic Development – Cllr Babalwa Lobishe
  2. Constituency Coordinator – Cllr Fikile Desi
  3. Safety and Security – Cllr Thembinkosi Mafana
  4. Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture – Cllr Nomamerika Magopeni
  5. Corporate Services – Cllr Wandisile Jikeka
  6. Human Settlements – Cllr Mbuyiseli Mkavo
  7. Infrastructure and Engineering – Cllr Andile Mfunda
  8. Public Health – Cllr Paticia Ndlovu
  9. Budget and Treasury – Cllr Balu Naran

The full verbatim address of Executive Mayor Benson Fihla appears below:

ADDRESS BY NELSON MANDELA BAY MUNICIPALITY’S EXECUTIVE MAYOR BENSON FIHLA AT A FULL SITTING OF COUNCIL ON 28 MARCH 2013

Speaker of Council, Cllr Maria Hermans; Chief Whip of Council, Cllr Joy Seal; Deputy Executive Mayor, Cllr Chippa Ngcolomba; Councillors; City Manager, Dr Lindiwe Msengana-Ndlela; Officials; Members of the Media; Members of the Public

Madam Speaker: On the occasion of my acceptance speech on the 22 March 2013; I made a bold and conscious declaration to be;

  1. Building a caring society
  2. Deepening democracy, and
  3. Making our City work.

Today is the first council meeting after my inauguration, a day which I consider to be an extremely significant day for me and the movement of the people, the African National Congress. It is important in the sense that I articulated several things that matters most to the residents of the metro. The 100 days plan outlined some of the urgent tasks that need to be considered as a matter of extreme urgency. I expect the City Manager to develop an implementation plan to address the issues mentioned in my 100 days plan. Such a plan will ultimately be tabled for consideration by this council at the end of the 100 days. I therefore submit as part of the Executive Mayor’s report, issues that warrant an undivided attention of this house.

Speaker, the first few days in office has been an eye opener for me in that the public participation process as part of finalising the 2013/2014 draft IDP and budget has commenced on Monday 25 March 2013. The community members have shown a lot of interest on issues that matter most to all of them in as far as service delivery is concerned. That on its own is an indication that we should work as a collective to ensure that such identified issues are addressed. We must all remember that effective public participation remains key to ensure that participatory democracy is realised. In view of this, I urge all of us inclusive of the community leaders and community members in general, to take these public participation processes seriously as they are likely to chant the way forward for this metro.

Let me mention that I have started serious engagements with some of the relevant stakeholders and to my surprise, they have raised some serious issues that this municipality needs to attend. Amongst the other issues raised was the publication of Kabuso and Vusi Pikoli Reports. I must indicate that I’m in the process of familiarising myself with these reports. They will be made available as soon as possible, most probably in the next council. All we need to do now is to ensure that we develop the necessary capacity to deliver on their concerns. (see below for MyPE comments on this paragraph)

Speaker In terms of section 16(1) & (2) of the Municipal Finance Management Act; 56 of 2003; “The Council of a municipality must; for each financial year approve an Annual Budget for the municipality before the start of that financial year. Furthermore; the Mayor of the municipality must table the Annual Budget at a Council Meeting at least 90 days before the start of the budget year”.

Speaker, I wish to mention that this council is supposed to table the 2013/2014 draft integrated development plan, budget and the service delivery and budget implementation plan. This is a legislative imperative in terms of the Municipal Systems Act 2000 and the Municipal finance Management Act of 2003.The IDP aligns the available resources; expenditure and the community needs. In order for Council to achieve the alignment; it is also important to align the Council’s needs with those of National and Provincial government. Local government is responsible for service delivery to the end user; the community; but this does not mean the National and Provincial directives must be ignored. It is only when all spheres of government align their objectives that some optimal impact can be made to the community.

However, having acknowledged the challenges that the municipality is facing, it is my considered opinion that the municipality should seek an extension of time from the relevant authorities to allow all the stakeholders to make their inputs into the necessary documents to be tabled in this meeting. This is informed by nothing else but creation of a mechanism to ensure that we develop and adopt a credible IDP and cash backed budget. To this end, a correspondence has been forwarded to the Provincial Treasury and the MEC: Co-operative governance to approve the 7 days extension period. Further to this, a process plan has been developed to ensure that a qualitative 2013/2014 integrated development plan and budget document is produced.

Fellow councillors, I have already witnessed, during the public participation process some areas which might well be regarded as flashpoint areas in particular Motherwell . The continued lawlessness in Motherwell need to be condemned. It is our responsibility to ensure that the lives of the councillors are not in danger. The Deputy Executive Mayor must lead a team to make analysis of the threats. These are the areas that need to be attended to speedily in ensuring that some form of stability prevails in this metro.

Knowing very well that a lot more still needs to be done, I hereby present to you a team that we will be working with and that will advise and ensure together with me and the Deputy Executive Mayor business as usual is over.

The members of the Executive Mayoral Committee are:

  1. Economic Development: Cllr. Babalwa Lobishe.
  2. Constituency Coordinator: Cllr. Fikile Desi.
  3. Safety and Security: Cllr. Thembinkosi Mafana.
  4. Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture: Cllr. Nomamerika Magopeni.
  5. Corporate Services: Cllr. Wandisile Jikeka.
  6. Human Settlements: Cllr. Mbuyiseli Mkavo.
  7. Infrastructure and Engineering: Cllr. Andile Mfunda.
  8. Public Health: Cllr. Patricia Ndlovu.
  9. Budget and Treasury: Cllr. Balu Naran.

The appointment of the Mayoral Committee necessitates a change in the deployment in committees of council. Therefore the Chief Whip will elaborate on those areas identified for change.

Fellow councillors the work has started. It is now our responsibility to take the fight to the communities. As we start this process of the IDP/Budget we must realise that April 2014 we will be celebrating 20 years of our freedom. When we pass the IDP/Budget of 2013/2014 we will be judged on what we have done for the past years of reconstruction and development of our city.

We dare not fail.

Together we can build better communities

Ladies and Gentleman, I thank you.

Nkosinathi Benson Fihla
Executive Mayor
Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality

Editor’s Notes:

Our new Mayor said: Amongst the other issues raised was the publication of Kabuso and Vusi Pikoli Reports. I must indicate that I’m in the process of familiarising myself with these reports. They will be made available as soon as possible, most probably in the next council. All we need to do now is to ensure that we develop the necessary capacity to deliver on their concerns.

Sir, even a lowly rubbish as myself is familiar with the contents of the reports, where have you been all these years? Hiding in a bucket? You have until the next council sitting. And, we have the necessary capacity – it is called the law and has been around for a while now – let us rid ourselves of this sword of Damocles, get on with it and slap those who need to be slapped.

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Media Communications at Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality
The Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality Communications Department is responsible for communicating pertinent Municipal news from Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage and Despatch. Municipality Contact Details. See more articles by NMB Communication's.