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Gary Takes Retief’s Bait

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Earlier today former Mayor of NMB, Retief Odendaal, took a swipe at present Mayor, Gary van Niekerk’s apparent neglect of the townspeople of Kariega. See: Don’t Stress Kariega, Retief is Here

In a statement that shows that the two are not Facebook friends (despite their short lived coalition romance) Gary said:

After being informed about an inflammatory Facebook post [Editor: It was also sent out as a press release by the DA, Gary] by PR Councillor Retief Odendaal regarding the neglect of Kariega, I informed my staff to urgently prepare an invitation to the councillor [Editor: Was it an invite to a bout of fisticuffs like Mark and Elon are contemplating?].

The wilful neglect of the garden town by all previous administrations, despite the ceremonial occupation of the Mayor’s Office, is a serious concern. This publicity stunt was performed by five previous Executive Mayors without any meaningful change for the residents of Kariega. I do not want us to play politics in the public arena and resort to cheap political point scoring, while the needs and neglect of the poor, under our stewardship, continue unabated.

This morning I had an engagement with Ward Councillors for them to provide me with ten of their most urgent service delivery requirements, in order for my support staff to assist with the resolution of these issues. No political party was excluded to ensure that all our constituencies are represented. I want to thank the DA councillors for their attendance and enthusiastic participation.

However, I will also not tolerate the threatened coup of municipal offices, while we have a coalition in charge of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. The former mayor should know better than to publicly threaten an insurrection and must be brought to book as we cannot allow lawlessness and illegal occupation of municipal offices.

I want to assure all citizens that as the Executive Mayor of the city, I am attending to all areas under my jurisdiction. I will be visiting Colchester soon and also have Kariega on my Mayoral Walkabout schedule.

All residents from Colchester, Despatch, Gqeberha, Kariega and the surrounding peri-urban areas are part of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality and must be serviced. We should take our duty as Councillors seriously, and not perform to meaningless political theatre.

Let us practice servant leadership and not vilify each other in political point scoring campaigns. I agree with Charles Edward Montague, English novelist and essayist (1867-1928): There is no limit to what a man can do, so long as he does not care a straw who gets the credit for it.

I would like to remind Councillor Odendaal that the protection of municipal assets is a serious matter for my administration as the wanton vandalism, under others, must come to an end.

Gary van Niekerk
Executive Mayor,Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.