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Mayor and the leader of the opposition engaged cordially – NMBM

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Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Executive Mayor Gary van Niekerk and the leader of the opposition in Council, PR Councillor Retief Odendaal, met at Gqeberha City Hall today to discuss a Facebook post by the opposition leader yesterday.

Despite the hair-raising social media post, the two leaders decided to engage regularly and meet to discuss service delivery-related concerns in the interest of all residents.

Mayor Van Niekerk welcomed this and said it was a good meeting.

“It will definitely not be last time that we meet. It has always been the norm that leaders in government meet regularly with their opposition counterparts on a regular basis in the interest of the common good.

“I will be meeting with other opposition political parties such as ACDP, DOP, AIM and others.

“I explained to Councillor Odendaal that since I took office on 26 May, I had regular walkabouts in different wards with the responsible service delivery departments represented.

“I have been in Motherwell, Missionvale, Salt Lake, New Brighton (Chris Hani Informal Settlement), Bloemendal, Timothy Valley and dealt with potholes and sewage leaks in and adjacent to Standford Road thus far.

“My programme includes weekly walkabouts with Colchester and New Brighton coming up next week. A visit to Kariega is important to me and our pro-poor agenda.

“However, since I am aware of the urgency to fast-track service delivery, a need that was sorely lacking for a long time, I had a meeting with Ward Councillors yesterday.

“The intention of the meeting was to encourage them to provide my office with ten of their most urgent service delivery concerns for each ward in order for my support staff to assist them to get it resolved.

“Kariega Ward Councillors were also in attendance and enthusiastically participated in the process.

“When I go to the Garden Town, I intend to come with solutions as far as possible as I have a good idea what to expect due to the Ward Councillor engagement,” Mayor Van Niekerk said.

Councillor Odendaal committed to the regular engagements, even telephonically to discuss pressing matters.
“My party is under pressure to bring stability to the region. We will therefore not support just any vote of no-confidence. However, we will keep you accountable.”

Mayor Van Niekerk welcomed this stance and said accountability, transparency and sincerity form an integral part of his administration.

In his Facebook Post after the meeting ODendaal said:

Today the DA had a very fruitful meeting with Nelson Mandela Bay mayor, Gary van Niekerk.

He invited the DA to an engagement at City Hall in Gqeberha/ Port Elizabeth after we highlighted that he has not visited Kariega/ Uitenhage and surrounding areas over the last month since taking office.

Although we could not get through all the discussion points on our agenda, he requested that we meet twice a month to discuss burning issues and to jointly find solutions to the problems that face NMB.

As a former mayor and long-serving public representative I stand ready to advise mayor Van Niekerk on all issues affecting the Metro.

More importantly, he also committed to visiting Kariega within the next couple of days – paying special attention to outstanding service delivery issues.

The DA will hold mayor Van Niekerk to these commitments.

I will however also honour my commitment to work from Kariega/Uitenhage at least once a week to attend to appointments as well as engage with communities.

Always remember the DA is in your corner, fighting for YOU! We will ensure that no NMB community is ever left behind!

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Port Elizabethan

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