Nelson Mandela Bay ready for holiday makers namagoduka – NMBM

The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality is ready to welcome holiday makers and amagoduka for this year’s festive season to enjoy exciting festivities and the City’s tourism offerings in a safe, secure and clean Friendly City.

Boasting three beaches with the Blue Flag status, NMBM assured to recruit 160 EPWP workers who will be deployed across the beaches and 40 seasonal lifeguards to boost the permanent staff who will have their hands full as the City is expecting large numbers of holiday makers following the COVID-19 pandemic that restricted movement in the last two years.

NMBM Executive Mayor, Cllr Retief Odendaal said: “We are delighted and looking forward to welcoming thousands of people into our City again. On Monday we officially launched the Festive Season Safety programme and have warned residents and visitors to refrain from drinking and driving. The same can be said about drinking in our beaches, we will be very strict and we encourage people to not take chances.”

“The 160 EPWP workers recruited will serve as tourism ambassadors, others will be ensuring that our beaches are clean as litter pickers. Our plans include waste management plans as we have a problem of illegal dumping in our City. Waste management is one of our priorities as part of the #getNMBworkingagain campaign and we will certainly not tolerate littering even during the festive season,” said Mayor Odendaal.

The Mayor added that NMBM would work closely with stakeholders including SAPS, Eastern Cape Liquor Board, Eastern Cape Traffic Services and community based crime- prevention organisations during the busy period.

Illegal tavern and bar operators and those who operate out of their license conditions will not be spared as the Metro Police will be doing enforcement work to limit alcohol related criminal activities, injuries or deaths.

The City has already commenced with the bulk waste removal in the Townships and Northern Areas and residents are urged to take out all their unwanted waste to enjoy quality family time in clean spaces.

The refuse collection schedules will continue as normal while the bulk waste removal programme will run until 22 December 2022.

 As part of the City’s responsible tourism campaign, three recycling igloos will be placed in Hobbie Beach, Kings Beach and Happy Valley.

“Each of the three beaches will have three igloos. The project forms part of the bigger Cleaning and Greening project which we have been implementing throughout the year. We are quite please with this move and we want it to move to all our beaches,” the Mayor said.

The City has sponsored two big festivals; the Ebubeleni Music Festival taking place on 30 December 2022 at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium and the 9th Annual UTH Picnic at Willow Dam on 23 December 2022.

While residents and holiday makers are encouraged to join the festivities, the City has issued a stern warning that lawlessness will not be tolerated. This will be achieved by the roving roadblocks beefed up with two mobile alcohol testing centre trucks and Metro Police crime prevention operations.

“Motorists must be patients on the road, do not drink and drive. People must rather have a designated driver for their trips. We urge residents to not drive recklessly, the destinations will not move. We must curb the accidents within our City that often take away lives. We urge parents travelling with children to ensure that infants are put in car seats. We wish everyone a happy festive season, but a responsible one as we are still faced with the drought crisis. Our dam levels are sitting at 16.01% and every drop counts,” the Mayor added.

Residents are encouraged to check the City’s social media platforms for urgent service delivery related updates.