Newly elected ANC Nelson Mandela Bay chairperson, Andile Lungisa, led a service delivery march to the City Hall today as promised during his address when he was elected this past weekend.
Lungisa election was endorsed by president Jacob Zuma even though ANC secretary-general, Gwede Mantashe, had cautioned that as an Eastern Cape Provincial Executive Committee member he should not stand for the regional position.
Lungisa initially said he would not stand but then made an about turn at the elective conference.
A group of community members from the Raymond Mhlaba Branch led by Lungisa and the branch secretary,Thembekile Lawu, gathered in front of city hall to handover a petition.
Lungisa said the petition contains a wide range of issues including a demand for the municipality to send a maintenance team to fix a sewerage problem in the area he said was reported in December last year.
He said the municipality has seven days to respond.
"I said in my closing remarks last night (Sunday) that all of us will be wearing takkies, track-suits and we're going to march every day. I said we are going to start today (Mon). This march is confirmation (of that). If they are not responding to the petition within seven days and also if they're not sending a maintenance team within 24 hours we are going to close this Municipality down," he said.
Meanwhile, mayoral spokesperson, Sibongile Dimbaza, acknowledged receipt of the memorandum from the ANC, adding that the Municipality needed time to study it.
However, he said that residents should first raise issues with their relevant ward councillors.
"What needs to happen is that the Ward Councillor should report issues to Council to avoid being sidelined. Councillors have a responsibility to raise issues about their communities to the Council, failing which the communities, you know, come directly to the (city) leadership. That should be avoided. At ward level you have councillors who should be dealing with these issues," he said.
