Below is a speech extract from the True State of Metro Address delivered by DA NMB Mayoral Candidate Retief Odendaal MPL:
Over the last 18 months, I have spent much of my time experiencing the day-to-day realities of residents across our diverse city.
Together with the DA team, I have criss-crossed the metro, engaged residents and stakeholders, conducted extensive oversight, and even travelled to the Union Buildings to take the plight of our residents directly to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office.
Since May 2023, NMB has been governed by an ANC/EFF coalition that has presided over a city in ruin.
Residents face regular water and electricity outages, infrastructure collapse, sewage spillages, pothole-riddled roads, broken street and traffic lights, unsafe neighbourhoods, exorbitant tariffs, and financial mismanagement and corruption.
Tomorrow, Mayor Babalwa Lobishe delivers her State of the Metro Address in Kariega at a gala dinner, while many residents struggle to put food on the table. While the Mayor splashes money on more than 700 invited guests, NMB’s finances are in distress.
The latest audited figures show that Nelson Mandela Bay received a qualified audit opinion for 2024/25. My sources tell me that we are heading for yet another qualified opinion in the 2025/26 financial year. This stands in contrast to the unqualified audit opinion that the DA coalition government received for the 2022/23 financial year. This is still the only unqualified audit in this Metro for the past 14 years.
Irregular expenditure reached approximately R2.08 billion in 2024/25, and the municipality is now carrying one of the largest accumulated unwanted-expenditure burdens in the country.
During the first half of the 2025/26 financial year, the municipality’s cumulative collection rate was only 71.6%, well below its budgeted target of 80%. The municipality itself warned that continued poor collection could require operational expenditure cuts of more than R1.5 billion. At the same time, the municipality’s debtor payment period reached 168 days by December 2025.
In July 2026, National Treasury temporarily withheld NMB’s equitable-share transfer amid concerns over persistent MFMA non-compliance and failures to address unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
The water crisis is alarming. Non-revenue water losses have reached 60.39%, with approximately 7,000 leaks across the metro. We need to repair leaks quickly, and we need to get technical vacancies filled as soon as possible. There is currently a 64% vacancy rate for plumbers, engineers and artisans in water services alone.
The Electricity Department is also failing, with more than 1,100 reported network faults. Mismanagement has seen this department run at a financial loss of R1.48 billion in the 2024/25 financial year. It is widely expected that losses will now exceed R1.6 billion in the 2025/26 financial year.
Service delivery has effectively ground to a halt. The municipality’s own mid-year performance report for 2025/26 paints an extraordinary picture.
Only 16.67% of basic service-delivery targets had been achieved in the first six months of the financial year. Overall performance against all municipal targets stood at only 34.15%, compared with 51.28% at the same point the previous year. And while residents experience failing services, infrastructure maintenance and repair budgets were reported to be only 29.78% spent at mid-year.
A DA government will implement a long-term Water Security Plan, improve electricity infrastructure, tackle illegal dumping, repair roads, strengthen municipal cleaning and enforcement, and properly resource Metro Police while expanding cooperation with SAPS, neighbourhood watches and CCTV networks.
We will also tackle the housing backlog of more than 70,000 units by accelerating integrated human settlements, affordable rental opportunities and well-located land.
Most importantly, we must create jobs. With unemployment at approximately 33.1%, Nelson Mandela Bay needs a municipality that welcomes business and drives investment.
A DA government will make tourism one of the central pillars of Nelson Mandela Bay’s economic growth strategy, with a clear objective of creating 25,000 to 30,000 tourism jobs over the next five years.
Our automotive and industrial economy needs reliable water and electricity, good roads, and efficient municipal services. That is why a DA government’s Big-Six Industrial Zone Renewal Programme will focus on the following key industrial zones: North End, Uitenhage/Kariega, Struandale, Deal Party, Perseverance and Markman.
The programme will see a focus on road, electrical, stormwater and sanitation infrastructure maintenance, repairs, and safety and security.
When a DA government is elected, I pledge to make Nelson Mandela Bay safe and clean, deliver water and electricity, attract investment and jobs, stop corruption, and improve infrastructure and housing opportunities.
Nelson Mandela Bay cannot afford another five years of ANC/EFF coalition chaos. On 4 November, residents can unite behind the DA so that we get Nelson Mandela Bay working for all.
