The incompetent ANC/EFF-led coalition government in Nelson Mandela Bay has shown that it has no plan to deal with the deepening water crisis in the Metro, leaving some communities on the verge of a humanitarian disaster.
This became even clearer at the Council meeting on 5 March 2026 in Gqeberha, when I submitted an urgent motion to the Speaker requesting that Council urgently address the ongoing water and electricity failures affecting residents.
Instead of decisive action, the Metro continues to subject residents to daily water outages caused by power failures. Thousands of angry and frustrated residents and businesses are no longer buying the explanations, or rather excuses, offered by this municipality’s collapsing leadership.
Our motion called for the appointment of an independent panel of experts to investigate the real reasons behind the Metro’s escalating crisis and to make clear recommendations on how to resolve it. The motion further required that the panel’s findings, together with an independent report and its recommendations, be tabled before Council within 14 days.
Although the Speaker initially accepted the motion and included it in the agenda, she inexplicably introduced a green paper item, which is confidential, and removed the media and the public from the meeting without introducing the DA’s motion.
Even after I reminded the Speaker that the DA’s motion was not confidential and was clearly in the public interest, she continued with the confidential item and then abruptly closed the meeting.
The Speaker and the ANC/EFF coalition of chaos have clearly run out of ideas to deal with a crisis that is depriving residents of their basic human rights. Worse still, they do not even care enough to allow a motion to be tabled that proposes practical solutions to alleviate the suffering of residents.
We will continue to hold the Speaker and the coalition of chaos government to account and will resubmit this motion to be tabled at the next Council meeting.
A responsible DA government in Nelson Mandela Bay will plan instead of react to crises. We will have credible medium- to long-term water security measures in place.
Water security is a prerequisite for the development and the stability needed to get Nelson Mandela Bay working again.