The Democratic Alliance proudly announces Retief Odendaal as our Mayoral Candidate for Nelson Mandela Bay, in the run up to next year’s Local Government Election.
In running a mayor candidate for the Metro, the DA declares our unequivocal intention to challenge for the governance of Nelson Mandela Bay in next year’s election.
Retief is a former mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay and stood at the head of a 10-party coalition that made massive strides in fixing the metro.
During his time as mayor between September 2022 and May 2023, the DA and our coalition partners started to turn the metro around. Under his leadership, we improved service delivery and cracked down on corruption. Nelson Mandela Bay also achieved it is first unqualified audit in 12 years, under former mayor Retief Odendaal.
All this hard work was undone when the ANC, with the assistance of smaller proxy parties, such as the PA and NA, returned to govern the metro in 2023.
Retief is a qualified attorney, and was elected as a Nelson Mandela Bay Councillor in 2009 at the age of 27. In 2014 he was also elected as the DA’s NMB caucus leader and leader of the opposition in the council.
Between 2016 and 2018 Retief served as the Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Budget and Treasury and was instrumental in turning the metro’s finances around.
He is currently serving as the DA’s Shadow MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) in the Eastern Cape Legislature, because he cares deeply about the effectiveness of local government.
Retief knows the administration of the metro like the back of his hand and has a critical understanding of the problems facing Nelson Mandela Bay.
The DA’s choice of Retief Odendaal as our Mayoral Candidate was the culmination of a competitive, thorough and exhaustive DA internal process of applications and interviews to select the very best person for the job.
The DA charges Retief Odendaal to lead a campaign that connects with the hearts of every person in Nelson Mandela Bay, that reaches every community, and tackles the serious issues facing this Metro.
The DA has full confidence in Retief and believe that he will get Nelson Mandela Bay working again.