On Friday, 29 January 2021, Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Executive Mayor, Cllr Nqaba Bhanga visited New Brighton to zoom into some of the grievances raised by residents about the state of affairs in the township.
During the visit, Mayor Bhanga was accompanied by Member of the Mayoral Committee, Cllr Lance Grootboom, who heads up Public Health and while on the ground directed a rapid response to some of the urgent service delivery challenges.
At the top of the grievances was the illegal dumping which has turned some of the parts of the area into an eyesore despite constant clean ups and weekly refuse collection by the City.
“We were requested by the community leadership to come and see what is happening about the state of service delivery in New Brighton. This is the most strategic area, it is on the same level as Soweto in Johannesburg and Gugulethu in Cape Town and it can be developed into a precinct for economic development. We can’t have this in a place where you want to build township economy. We will fix certain things including lights, potholes, illegal dumping,” the Mayor said.
“I am so angry that right opposite Emlotheni Fort, where the heroes of the liberation are sleeping, people are throwing rubbish in front of them. These are the people who fought for us but we are now throwing waste in front of them, this is a level of disrespect and that is why we must do something about it in honour of them. We are going to monitor this and ensure that it is given attention just for the respect of the heroes, even if it means we must come here on a daily basis. These people sacrificed their lives for us,” he added.
Public Health Portfolio Head Cllr Grootboom committed to having the identified illegal dump sites cleaned while other officials from other directorates including Roads, committed to attending to the grievances raised during the visit.
Community leader Mncedisi Mvinjelwa said: “We wanted to highlight the problem of illegal dumping, New Brighton is dirty. As concerned residents of New Brighton we said this is our place, we stay here, we were born here and we are worried that this place is not getting cleaner. It was important for us to take the Mayor through this dirty area so that they can see it. You can clean today and it will be dirty tomorrow, it means we need to educate our people. There should be consequences.
“The mere fact that the Mayor came here and responded to our call, it shows that he is serious about cleaning our City.”
A waste management public education drive will be rolled out in the area.
EDITOR: I will just leave this here – The Heritage Society beat the Mayor to it:
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