Another year, another big promise coming from Nelson Mandela Bay executive mayor Gary van Niekerk.
Speaking during a post council media briefing on Friday, Van Niekerk again put his head on the proverbial chopping block and declared that Nelson Mandela Bay - that has been rocked by increasing incidents of crime - would be one of the safest metros in the country come Christmas.
The mayor gave himself a deadline: "This Nelson Mandela Bay municipality will be the safest metro come December 25th. I think at the time when I calculated it was 125 days until Christmas, so come December 25th, we want to have our cameras up."
He said by that time, the metro would have CCTV cameras installed in hotspot areas.
Van Niekerk asked business owners in the Bay to follow suit.
"I want to plead to the CEO's of these big companies, please make sure around your facilities you meet us halfway and put up cameras.
"Make your big factories, your multi-million rand industries, make a fortress out of them."
Meanwhile, it's unclear if Van Niekerk has met a promise he made in December 2023 when he declared that Nelson Mandela Bay would be free of potholes.
"We want to repair all potholes and the closing date, or when the project concludes, is the 24th of December [2023]," Van Niekerk said at the time, "that's the date that we've given ourselves to fix all potholes within the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality."
