EC MEC meets civil society coalition over Metro woes

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

Eastern Cape Local Government and Traditional Affairs MEC, Mlibo Qoboshiyane met with the Nelson Mandela Bay coalition of civil society in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday.

The Coalition is made up of the Nelson Mandela Bay Chamber of Business, Religious organizations, Ratepayers Associations and local Non Governmental organizations.

Qoboshiyane said in a statement afterwards that "during the meeting, the Civil Society Coalition presented their consolidated concerns, raising issues with the lack of recognition of active citizenry, organizational instability, issues with IDP consultations, procurement delays, political interference, Pikoli and Kabuso reports, infrastructure backlogs such as housing backlog, quality of roads infrastructure, renewable energy for the city, concerns with de- industrialization in the Metro, which could affect jobs, costs of electricity and need for a stronger investment incentives programme."

"We agreed in the meeting that we all have to support the municipality in meeting its service delivery, development and transformation mandate such as building homes, improving electricity, reducing costs of living and of doing business in the Metro, improving public participation and access to free basic services," he said.

Meanwhle, chamber CEO Kevin Hustler says everyone present committed to tackling the problems facing the Metro together.

"It's now about us moving forward and engaging proactively. We are going to be working as a team with the MEC with the Section 154 support to the Metro which we believe is a good initiative," said Hustler.

"As business and civil society we are going to identify key areas where we can work together over particularly the next three months to put our combined efforts in to play to support this initiative," Hustler added.