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More violent protests as absent NMB Mayor Van Nierkerk ignores Bayland crisis

By

Dear Editor

Yet another violent public protest erupted at the Bayland informal settlement in Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB) this morning (5 April) amidst growing tensions about a lack of service delivery within the community.

Angry residents blocked off the R75 after NMB Mayor Gary van Niekerk apparently refused to address representatives from the community at City Hall yesterday. The protest action caused massive disruptions to commuters between Kariega and Gqeberha.

The Bayland informal settlement is one of the biggest of its kind in the Metro and more than 5,000 residents call this settlement home. Living conditions in this community have become unbearable as the municipality fails to deliver basic services such as access to water, sanitation and electricity.

The DA is now engaging with the office of the City Manager in an attempt to address the concerns of the community to prevent further service delivery protests.

In 2022 the former DA coalition government found that Bayland had almost no adequate access to basic services. As a result, we stepped in and water was provided through the installation of additional standpipes and 300 chemical toilets were made available as a temporary solution to provide basic sanitation.

Budget was also made available to start with the process of electrifying the informal settlement.

After the DA and its coalition partners were ousted from government in May 2022 and replaced by an incompetent ANC/EFF/NA/PA coalition government, these plans fell by the wayside and the community has once again reverted to service delivery protests.

This is not surprising as Mayor Van Niekerk is increasingly absent from City Hall and has seemingly deserted the people of NMB.

The current administration under the Mayor and his ANC/EFF/NA/PA coalition cadres simply don’t have the will or understanding to deal with service delivery issues.

Thousands of water and sewerage leaks, broken streetlights, collapsing road infrastructure as well as regular, unplanned electricity and water outages plague the Metro and service delivery has basically ground to a halt.

The DA will not falter in its fight to rescue the residents of Bayland and NMB from this absent corrupt cabal that only serves self-interest at the cost of all residents.

We are your corner, fighting for you. Together we can get NMB working again.

Regards

Cllr Retief Odendaal
DA NMB Caucus Leader

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