Poor attendance did not deter Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Mongameli Bobani from forging ahead with an Integrated Development Plan meeting in Kuyga on Wednesday.
Fewer than 50 residents, mostly in UDM T-shirts, attended the meeting in what some residents claimed was sabotage by Ward 40 councillor Jason Grobbelaar.
With the exception of budget and treasury portfolio head Mkhuseli Mtsila, Bobani’s mayoral committee members also failed to attend the meeting.
Human settlements portfolio head Andile Mfunda arrived at about 7pm to deliver the vote of thanks.
Mtsila said mayoral committee members had other commitments.
Those in attendance, however, took advantage of the opportunity and laid bare what they would like to see prioritised in the budget for the 2019/2020 financial year.
Thozamile Gqushana apologised to Bobani for the poor attendance.
“I am very disappointed that we are welcoming the new mayor with such a tiny crowd. This meeting was not properly announced to residents,” he said.
Gqushana claimed the meeting had not been properly announced by the ward councillor. He said he had visited the ward councillor’s office earlier in the day and he had claimed to not know about the meeting.
Gqushana said housing and street names were some of the issues residents would like to see prioritised during the budget and IDP review process.
“Street names in Walmer are named after white people we know nothing about. We have people in the area with clan names that we can relate to,” he said.
Xola Peter said the area was in a desperate need of graveyards. “Our people are buried in Chatty which is far away.”
Ntombikayise Manto said the biggest problem in the area was that young people were having sex because they were unemployed and there were no activities.
“I have messaged the mayor on WhatsApp on numerous occasions but he did not respond to me when we desperately need help here,” Manto said.
“What is unfortunate is that we have the infrastructure in place, we have St Albans at our doorstep, we have the traffic college and a flight school, but this does not benefit us as residents,” Manto said.
Bobani said he had noted all the residents’ concerns, including the reasons for the poor attendance.
“We understand that something did not quite happen the way it was meant.
“We will follow this up with officials and find out what happened.”
Bobani also said officials would make sure that residents’ concerns were considered during the budget review process.
“We will investigate what we can do with respect to street names.
“We also note your concerns with the lack of electricity in the area but we don’t condone the theft of electricity.
“If you steal electricity we will arrest you.”
Bobani also said he would investigate allocating land for graveyards.