GQEBERHA - GQEBERHA - The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality is not running well 'at the moment,' says the Democratic Alliance's mayoral candidate, Retief Odendaal.
He says service delivery in the municipality has collapsed. He warned about a disinvestment in the City. The DA’s NMB mayoral candidate was speaking during eNCA's election roundtable at Nelson Mandela University on Sunday.
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"We need to professionalise the administration," he declared.
"We need to headhunt professional people to return to our administration, engineers, plumbers, electricians, and not people connected to politicians," he added.
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.
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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.
Odendaal wants the municipality to address the financial freefall.
"We are going to be bankrupt within a couple of months if it is not immediately addressed," he explained.