“This thing of legalising weed is not right, the mayor is high.”
This Facebook comment followed Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Mongameli Bobani’s statement on Wednesday that the metro was one of the safest in the country.
Another Facebook user said: “What are you smoking? We live behind bars and fences alarms etc etc. You on drugs ?????? ”
Other comments included:
● “Yhooo ... with all those assassinations in public. Stop smoking, my broer”
● “That guy does not know anything – he does not know what he is speaking about”
● “Probably why weed was legalised, so they can smoke it and make stupid comments like this”, and
● “Whatever he is smoking is very strong”.
Bobani was speaking at a media breakfast at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, highlighting some of the coalition government’s accomplishments and challenges since taking over in August 2018.
“We fervently believe that a healthy community is built on safe communities and because of this we can say that the Nelson Mandela [Bay] metro is one of the safest cities in the country,” he said.
This follows a rash of killings in the city recently – nine murders in just nine days.
However, when questioned on the statement, safety and security portfolio head Litho Suka said Bobani was highlighting the five-month period since the coalition came to power.
“It’s important to note that the mayor is speaking about the entire five-month period.
“The recent killings in the metro are only happening now. Before that there was not much crime in the city.”
Bobani’s statement shocked Deonaltus Abrahams, who said on Facebook: “With so many gang killings ... a 13-year-old boy was shot, while my colleague was almost hijacked in Summerstrand, he [Bobani] is probably talking about another city.”
And Chris Keenan said: “Another idiot who does not know what the residents are going through.”
Bobani also said: “You know that we are now experiencing killings in our city.
“In the northern areas, young kids are killing each other and this is because people have nothing to do.”
He said the coalition government would use job creation as a way to curb crime.
The session also looked at the plans and successes of the various departments. These include the recent positive credit rating by Moody’s.
Bobani said the aim of the session was to reinforce the relationship between the coalition and the media.
“There is too much at stake to let petty politics overshadow the public good and progress we are making in the city,” he said.
“Our relationship is turbulent because we are going through a turbulent time.
“Things are different now. . . our mission and strategy is to connect and implement and support our poor and disadvantaged communities.
“A healthy and clean government is part of our DNA, and this is why we are launching a metro-wide programme to remove trash.
“Our people deserve a clean space. We cannot allow environmental decay in the city.”
The political leadership in Nelson Mandela Bay is mulling over restoring dilapidated duplex RDP houses in Motherwell NU29.
It is also pushing for desalination to augment the city’s water supply while investigating ways to deal with the city’s ballooning arrears debt.
These are some of the plans that Bay mayor Mongameli Bobani and his team have committed to act on before the end of the financial year.
The plans were announced at a media breakfast at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Wednesday.
Human settlements portfolio head Andile Mfunda said a decision on the Motherwell duplexes would be taken after a meeting with human settlements minister Nomaindia Mfeketo next week.
“We want to inspect with the province, if they say they can fix those houses, they can fix those houses,” Mfunda said.
The houses have been empty for more than four years as they were shoddily built.
Mfunda said plans for the city to take over the function of building houses had also been submitted to human settlements.
Bobani said the metro would also focus on renewable energy and desalination.
“When we assess our performance since taking over office we are the first to concede that it has been a challenging, yet rewarding, period of moving on and trying to make things right by putting the city back on track,” Bobani said.