The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Executive Mayor, Cllr Babalwa Lobishe has welcomed the appointment of two experienced senior managers through the Section 154 intervention to act as the Acting City Manager and the COO for a duration of six months.
On Tuesday, 1 April 2025 the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Zolile Williams announced and confirmed the appointment of Mr Ted Pillay as the Acting City Manager and Mr Gonqo as the acting Chief Operating Officer.
These appointments materialise following a request by the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Council and the Executive Mayor, Cllr Babalwa Lobishe for a section 154 intervention through COGTA and the MEC by appointing an Acting City Manager and a COO following an assessment by the Municipality that identified a number of governance, service delivery and administrative challenges that require a collaborative intervention.
Section 154 of the South African Constitution requires the national and provincial governments to support and strengthen the capacity of municipalities to perform their functions. Speaking at the press conference organised by the MEC and the Executive Mayor to announce the appointments, Executive Mayor Lobishe said the appointments come at a perfect time when the Municipality is working around the clock to accelerate service delivery. “We thank MEC Williams for the interventions, to address service delivery challenges. We are looking forward to work with this team of experienced senior officials,” said Executive Mayor Lobishe.
The Municipality is still in negotiations with the incumbent City Manager who is currently on suspension, Dr Noxolo Nqwazi about the terms of the termination of her contract.
MEC Williams said the appointment of these officials will be for six months with the expectation that the Municipality would have dealt with matter of the incumbent City Manager the incumbent City Manager, Dr Noxolo Nqwazi who is currently on suspension.
“Our interventions are based on the request that the Council has made for these specific appointments. The appointment that we made of Mr Mandla George which expired early this year has given us a good opportunity to see how we can improve the interventions. Mr George has achieved some of the terms of reference that he was mandated to achieve. Following his appointment, we have agreed to rather send a team of officials. Supply Chain Management is another area that we intend beef up, to accelerate service delivery, as per our agreement with the Municipality,” said MEC Williams.
Ted Pillay is the former city manager for the Sara Baartman District Municipality, for more than ten years, steering the Municipality to consecutive clean audits during his tenure. The Acting appointments are effective from 1 April 2025.
“We welcome these appointments. We will hit the ground running to fast-track service delivery issues, prioritise the flood related infrastructure interventions in Kariega and other affected areas,” said the Executive Mayor Lobishe.
