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Mayor Jordaan misleads NMB, with Speaker Hermans’ protection

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Dear MyPE

Mayor Jordaan has today in council misled the people of Nelson Mandela Bay by claiming that the water crisis in Uitenhage, Kwanobuhle, Despatch and Daleview has been resolved.

While holding up his cellular phone in council, Jordaan referred to an SMS which claimed that water supply had already been restored, presenting it as fact when this is absolutely not the case. The situation on the ground tells a different story with tens of thousands of our people still forced to walk long distances to source water from elsewhere in the Metro, as taps remain dry.

Editor: Scroll down for the video of the Executive Mayor in Council today.

This water crisis is as a direct result of the Mayor’s irresponsible slashing of the infrastructure maintenance budget by R123 million last year and all the Mayor cares to do is mislead our people, while fully protected by Speaker Hermans.

Worse still, while the Mayor misleads us, the Provincial Hospital has also been without water since Sunday, placing hundreds of lives at risk, without any explanation.

Large parts of the Metro have been without water since Sunday due to burst pipes, which the Metro’s plumbing teams seem incapable of fixing because they are understaffed and underequipped by this ANC government.

Minister Mokonyane’s imaginary “War on Leaks” and the inability for the Metro to train the necessary amount of plumbers is resulting in catastrophic service delivery failures, of which this water crisis is one.

When various DA councillors tried to raise motions of clarity on this matter in council today in terms of the rules, Speaker Maria Hermans blocked this outright, without explanation or reason, exposing her political bias and her protection of Danny Jordaan.

Speaker Hermans recently decided unanimously that she would prevent points of order or clarity from being raised, which directly contravenes the rights of sitting councillors under the law.

This directly undermines our Constitution, which gives elected public representatives the right to rise on points of order or clarity at any time during any sitting in any legislature, to take up issues for the people of the Bay.

The ANC has for too long abused its position in government to commit delivery failures, and then mislead South Africans when challenged.

The DA is set on winning Nelson Mandela Bay at this year’s local government election to usher in a government of integrity, accountability and honesty.

Regards

Retief Odendaal


In the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality Council meeting on 6 March 2016, the Executive Mayor Danny Jordaan came out firing against opposition parties saying that they were all a; “Lot of Sound and No Substance.” Here he spanks DA Councillor Retief Odendaal for his remarks that the people of Uitenhage have been without water for 24 hours.

Editor: After today’s council meeting which Odendaal is referring to the municipality was ‘hoping’ to have the water restored by 3:00 pm this afternoon – see: Hopefully Uitenhage water supply will be restored today.

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Port Elizabethan

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