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Newly elected Nelson Mandela Bay executive mayor, Nqaba Bhanga, has a tough task ahead of him after being elected at a fractious Special Council Meeting on Friday.
A day later, he outlined his main priorities, top of which is getting to grips with the rising cases of Covid19 infections in the Metro, which was declared a coronavirus hotspot by the government this week.
He said every effort must be made to mitigate against the spread of the virus, including ramping up public awareness campaigns immediately and enforcement of regulations.
Addressing a media briefing on Saturday, the DA provincial leader said that their mission as the "coalition of the good" has developed a priority list to reconstruct what he said was a broken city.
“Today marks the beginning of a new chapter, a positive chapter where we put aside the politics and focus on fixing Nelson Mandela Bay. We have done it before, and we can do it again. I want to be clear, from the onset, that this is not going to be easy,” Bhanga said.
He said the responsibility of leading the city comes at a time when it is “waging a war against the rampant spread of COVID-19, deepening poverty, rising unemployment, rampant crime and a devastating drought. “
Bhanga said much of the ground gained since 2016 when the DA-led administration was in power, has been lost and “in places, we are worse off than we were before, with even more daunting challenges to deal with.”
He promised to root out corruption and deliver basic services while also bringing back law and order.
Among his other nine top priorities will be to address the challenges of the drought, housing backlogs and administrative challenges.
“Our administration has been battered and bruised by compromised officials. We must fast track the appointments of acting executive directors who are not compromised and where necessary, fill vacancies where they exist.”
Keeping the City clean and addressing service delivery backlogs is another priority.
“We will establish a Basic Service Delivery Action Programme in my office, which will coordinate and monitor the eradication of the service delivery backlog in the city, along with our MMC’s. Daily reporting, accountability to voters and direction are returning to City Hall,” Bhanga said.
The DA councillor was ushered into the city’s hot seat through the support of coalition partners that include the Patriotic Alliance, ACDP, Cope, UF and AIC while ANC councillors, who were largely absent did not take part in the vote.
