The Nelson Mandela Bay municipality must stop construction work in Circular Drive and divert its budget to develop townships and northern areas.
This call was made by the metro’s roads and transport portfolio head, Marlon Daniels, whose Patriotic Alliance is part of the coalition administration governing the metro.
About R10m has been budgeted by the metro to widen a section of Circular Drive in Lorraine to ease traffic congestion following housing developments in the area.
Construction is under way and several connecting roads have been temporarily closed.
Municipal spokesperson Mthubanzi Mniki said some businesses in the area had also clubbed in to do additional roadworks.
Daniels first hit out at the project during a roads and transport committee meeting two weeks ago.
On Friday, Daniels said in an interview he could not believe the municipality wanted to “beautify” Circular Drive when there were gravel roads in townships.“I recommended not to finish that project and to take that money and put it in the townships,” he said.
“People in affluent areas have things their way all the time. Why must the white man always get what he wants?
“I’m fed up. I cannot be smiling about this and I don’t care who says what.
“Take me to task whoever wants to about what I’m saying, I don’t care.
“Forever and a day, our people must sit back and fold their arms for the government to hear their cries and understand their plight.
“That is not a good space to live in when you’re living on gravel roads.
“I’m not happy with councillors in the standing committee for not wanting to redress the imbalances of the past.
“Our children in the townships are subjected to playing in mud. I feel that the priority of the money being spent in Circular Drive is misdirected – it should go to where the need is and not a want.”
Asked if the people who moved from the townships and northern areas to social housing in Lorraine would not be further disadvantaged if the city were to stop the project, Daniels said areas with gravel roads should be prioritised.
“Circular Drive is just being widened for easier flow of traffic, which is nice to have.
“We need to [distinguish] between a nice to have and the need to have,” Daniels said.
He criticised DA councillor Sandile Rwexwana, who opposed the idea at the committee meeting, saying he was disappointed that a black councillor with roots in the township did not want poor people to get the money.
Rwexwana said he disagreed with Daniels’s approach.“Circular Drive is not only used by affluent people, we have poor people accessing schools and their work places.
“And it’s not right to leave projects unfinished,” he said.
“We do agree that most of the budget must go to previously disadvantaged areas, but most people paying rates come from this side of the metro and they also deserve some sort of maintenance.”
City manager Johann Mettler said it was unusual for a politician to want to stop a project.
He said a request for a deviation from budgeted expenditure had to come from the department, with objective reasons for doing so.
He said stopping a project, in general, could lead to the municipality incurring irregular expenditure, especially if contractors needed to be paid and work was supposed to be done in terms of a process plan.
“You can’t simply take money away, you are exposing yourself to contractual liability in a case like that,” Mettler said.
Imizi Housing CEO Tony Lloyd, whose company is responsible for the Fairview Links and Walmer Links projects, said the upgrading of the road was vital as there would be another development of 420 units in the next two years.
“Social housing is about organised densification and that comes with the ability to move people to and from their places of work, which makes this development all the more crucial,” Lloyd said.