One of our African Proverbs views rain occuring on or before a special day like a wedding, birth, circumcision, funeral, graduation, birthday etc. as a particularly good omen and blessing *.
Here in Nelson Mandela Bay we need blessings but, more than that, we need people to stand together towards a common goal. At this moment in time we do not really care what that goal is only that we have a common goal to begin practising with on our journey to prosperity, love and light.
That desire is a little bit more difficult with the revolving door still standing at the entrance to the Mayor’s office.
In the last 22 years the Nelson Mndela Bay Metro has been ‘blessed’ with 12 Mayors – indicating that he average length of service has been less than two years per Mayor. Not really conducive to making a real impact in the lives of citizens at all.
Nelson Mandela Bay Mayors since 2001: Christopher Nceba Faku, Nondumiso Maphazi, Zanoxolo Wayile, Ben Fihla, Danny Jordaan, Athol Trollip, Mongameli Bobani, Tshonono Buyeye, Nqaba Bhanga, Eugene Johnson, Retief Odendaal and Gary van Niekerk.
Two of these Mayors have been ‘blessed’ with rain – Bobani and van Niekerk.
In the beginning of September 2018 the UDM’s Mongameli Bobani ousted his former coalition partner and then Executive Mayor Athol Trollip to become Nelson Mandela Bay’s new Mayor along with a new coalition under the ANC.
In reply the heavens opened that month and the dam levels shot up from 16.54% to 52.21%. October was an even more blessed month as the dam levels reached their highest since 2016 at 54.80%.
Unfortunately for Bobani the blessings eased off and the dam levels once again beagn a steady drop bottoming out at 31.65% in December 2019 – the month Bobani was finally ousted on 5 December 2019, after a majority of councillors voted for his removal. He had survived five motions of no confidence during his 15 month tenure.
On 11 November 2020 Mongameli Bobani passed away three weeks after he was admitted to the St. George’s Hospital in Gqeberha with complications from COVID-19.
It would appear that the gods have also blessed Executive Mayor, Gary van Niekerk with rain. Van Nikerk went into office in May 2023 with the April dam levels at 13.32%.
On 26 May 2023 van Niekerk became the third mayor of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro since the 2021 local government elections.
Since that date the dam levels have steadily climbed as rain has blessed van Niekerks reign every month – a complete outlier for this season as Gqeberha’s rainy season is not at this time. Presently the dam levels stand at 48.81% and, based on past years there is a very real chance that the levels will continue increasing.
Our advice to Gary is simple – when the dam levels start dropping you can start worrying.
People say that God works in mysterious ways so maybe this is proof!
Monthly Closing Dam Levels to Date:
* Our Aftican ancestors are in the spirit form, therefore we need to see something practical to show that they are in agreement.
For example, a goat must bleat during a traditional ceremony to show that ancestors agree. And in the event that a swarm of bees comes into a house, that must be taken as a sign of good news to come.
Rain means luck and is a blessing, it is the ancestors’ way of giving us a non-verbal message. It is a blessing in many ways and is just one of the ways the ancestors show their blessings.
Alan Straton
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