DA unveils six Eastern Cape mayoral candidates

The Democratic Allliance (DA) has unveiled its six Eastern Cape mayoral candidates ahead of the November Local Government Elections.

In Nelson Mandela Bay, the party is putting ‘professionalizing the municipal administration’ at the centre of its campaign.

Candidates elsewhere are focusing on investment, job creation, basic services and infrastructure.

Party leaders remain confident of winning outright majorities in the Beyers Naude, Blue Crane Route, InxubaYethemba, Makana, Kouga and Nelson Mandela Bay municipalities.

Nelson Mandela Bay Mayoral candidate Retief Odendaal says the city’s vacant senior management positions have contributed to what he describes as paralysis in the municipality.

“And we’ve seen that right now, in Nelson Mandela Bay, that have had nine of the executive director positions are vacant. So, there is no top management, including with the city manager. And that has resulted in the city, going to a state of paralysis, and it impacts, not just on service delivery, but also on our economy,”

Kouga is the only municipality in the Eastern Cape where the DA has outright majority.

Current mayor Hattingh Bornman says they have done many right things in the past 10 years, but they are still looking to improve.

“That’s the kind of investor confidence that we want to create, you know, municipality, because where there’s a stable DA government, things like that start to happen. People need to start to believe that we can deliver and we do create investment opportunities for big businesses. So, that is one of my 1st priorities, for our new term, is to invest in our industrial development zone in Humansdorp,”