Retief Odendaal: The big battle for the Bay has begun

A big battle has begun to overcome the “coalition chaos and instability that has allowed Nelson Mandela Bay to be hijacked by criminal networks”. In this interview, Retief Odendaal, the Democratic Alliance’s mayoral candidate, tells Chris Steyn that the City has the dubious record of having the most irregular expenditure of any municipality - R28 billion, while 10,000 street lights are not working, not a single engineer is left in the electricity department - and despite being one of only two metros in the country that actually still has some cash reserves, it can't deliver services. Since 2009, the City has had 48 municipal managers and 12 mayors. “If you take the municipal managers, it equates to about one every quarter. People ask me, but why does that happen? And I say, well, it's to facilitate looting because one loots from the State when there is absolute chaos.” Odendaal, urges citizens to give the DA the votes it needs for an outright majority as he outlines the measures needed to turn the Metro around. “…the good news for South Africans, not just in Nelson Mandela Bay, but in every other broken city and municipality in South Africa is that bad governments can be removed, corrupt people can be voted out of office.”