GQEBERHA - The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality are calling for an infrastructure rehabilitation program.
"We have been putting a plaster on a wound," said the party’s NMB mayoral candidate Sinawo Thambo.
Thambo says the City needs a fixed plan that guarantees that water leaks and other municipal damages are fixed timeously.
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"The infrastructure has collapsed; it has not been maintained," Thambo explained.
"There is no business that can operate in a City where there's constant water and electricity outages; that is why we are seeing a lot of disinvestment in the City."
Thambo was speaking during eNCA's election roundtable at Nelson Mandela University on Sunday.
Nelson Mandela Bay has one of the highest irregular expenditures of any metro in South Africa. The SIU has revealed a R35 million streetlight scandal, implicating 21 officials.
The Metro has had a revolving door of mayors and city managers since the 2021 local government elections. The City is under financial strain and was one of the municipalities on the list when Treasury withheld equitable share allocations to local governments in July.
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The Red Berets are calling for increased state capacity.
"A lot of corruption and irregular expenditures are a result of the City being highly dependent on contracting, like all other municipalities in the country," Thambo says.
"There is a reliance on tendering, and tendering feeds corruption," he adds.
Thambo has called for internal capacity building and in-sourcing.