COUNCILLOR Zanoxolo Wayile was recently elected Executive Mayor of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, along with Councillor Nancy Sihlwayi as the Deputy Executive Mayor and Councillor Helen Sauls-August as Council Speaker.

Addressing a full sitting of Council, Mayor Wayile promised to "work together with the people", saying that decisions and the agenda of Council "cannot be made in boardrooms, it can only be made together with the people".

At a media conference Wayile, flanked by Deputy Executive Mayor Sihlwayi and Speaker Sauls-August explained that the new political leadership will ensure that all stakeholders were afforded an opportunity to engage with the political leadership, and discuss the way forward for the city.

He especially singled out business, labour, youth, women, people with disabilities, and NGOs, as important roleplayers who would be consulted with and the city’s development collectively arrived at.

At the media conference the new Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Speaker were congratulated by the ANC, NAFCOC Nelson Mandela Bay, PERCCI, the Youth Council, and the Acting Municipal Manager, all of whom offered their support and pledged to work with the Mayor in addressing the city’s challenges, and in growing and developing the region.

Wayile was quick to point out the many challenges facing Nelson Mandela Bay including the high level unemployment, retrenchments due to the recession, the huge gap between rich and poor, the impending Eskom price hike, HIV & AIDS, TB, infrastructural backlogs, and underdevelopment in areas like Missionvale and other townships, and the need to diversify the economy, citing the formulation process of the Provincial Industrial Development Strategy as "an opportunity to influence an alternative strategy".

Wayile identified the acceleration of service delivery as a key priority, along with the development of youth, women, people with disabilities, "and all other marginalised communities, especially the poor".

Emphasising working together and "a common shared vision" among all stakeholders, Wayile said that "the socio-economic conditions that prevail, were not chosen by us - we therefore have to change them."

"But we can only do this if we work with everybody and make collective decisions. Otherwise we will only be making ’fake’ decisions, which do not enjoy the support of shared commitment of the people and the stakeholders. Such ’fake’ decisions are doomed for failure."

"The collective of this political leadership is mandated by the African National Congress. The African National Congress is guided and underpinned by the Freedom Charter. The Freedom Charter states, quite emphatically, that the ’People Shall Govern’. We are therefore the servants and the puppets of the people."

Source: Nelson Mandela Bay