The following speech was delivered by John Steenhuisen MP at the DA’s NMB Mayoral Candidate, Retief Odendaal’s campaign rally today.
Good morning, friends!
It’s a great privilege to be with you here in the Friendly City today. Thank you, residents of Nelson Mandela Bay, DA leaders, members of civil society, business people, community workers, and all who care about the future of this city and province!
I stand here today to unveil a vision for this beautiful Bay!
A vision where the people are at the centre of governance and, as a result, benefit from a competent, caring government.
The Democratic Alliance does not put ideology or identity at the centre of its politics. It prioritises people. Unlike other parties, the DA will not make ridiculous promises which it has no intention of keeping. This explains why the DA dominates the centre of South Africa’s politics in exactly the same way that people are at the centre of our concern.
You are our centre as we are at the centre of South Africa’s recovery.
Our focus on citizens above everything reveals how we plan to rescue this province from neglect, and realise its incredible promise.
This province has it all: natural beauty and the smiles and warmth of grounded people, which tells you, you’re home in the Eastern Cape.
It’s no surprise that people who travel here love it. I feel it every time I come here. From the blooming orange aloes in winter, to the golden beaches and the inviting ocean. It’s a place of industry, where people get things get done!
So many Eastern Cape industries depend on this Bay, particularly the port of Ngqura. You know, there is a local company in a nearby municipality that ships 300-400 Maersk containers of farm goods through Ngqura every year. That’s 4000 tonnes of locally grown vegetables sent through that port.
If they can’t use Ngqura, they have to send their goods elsewhere, which costs money and jobs. It’s the same for the local mohair industry. Wool shipped through Ngqura supports farms in Graaf-Reinet, Tarkastad, Cradock, Jansenville, Somerset East, Aberdeen, Steytlerville and Willowmore.
The point is: this metro is a logistics gateway connecting the world to this province.
So, to support the people – the doers of this metro – local government simply must work! And we know it is not working, right now!
In the Eastern Cape over the past three years, more than R1.3 billion in infrastructure funding has gone unspent, even as basic services collapse and residents continue to suffer. That very same company, which ships its vegetables through the port here, has had to cart 18 million litres of water to its plant this year, at its own cost, because the local municipality has dropped the ball. Families go without water or electricity – sometimes both! – in the evenings when they are preparing meals and their children need to do homework.
From dry taps to half-built sports fields, communities are paying the price of government incompetence. In Nelson Mandela Bay itself, grant funding of 13% wasn’t spent last year.
That means that the money is there, but the local ANC governing coalition is too corrupt and incompetent to spend it on what the people need!
They are very good at spending it on salaries and fancy cars for themselves, but they can’t don’t care about ordinary people and their struggle to make a good life for themselves and their children. That is a shocking dereliction of duty.
Corruption is rising. Last year, 21 SAPS members were charged with corruption which is more than five times the number of those charged just three years ago. Between 2021 and 2025, 54 officers have been charged with corruption. Not one has been convicted.
Worse: several who were found guilty in internal disciplinary processes have been allowed back on duty! At the same time, the Madlanga Commission continues to expose testimony of rot in our security services. We cannot build trust while those sworn to protect us act with impunity.
Corruption takes money out of the pockets of the citizens who pay their rates and taxes and funnels it to the tender-riggers who fail to deliver.
Tourism is under threat. Just recently the shooting of a 55-year-old East London woman near Mpande on the Wild Coast shocked the country, and tourists only go where they feel safe.
But it is not only tourists who are affected. Residents are afraid to go out at night because violent criminals own the streets. Alongside this are kidnappings and violence, which damage livelihoods and threaten the hospitality industry.
And if tourism suffers, Nelson Mandela Bay will suffer too because many tourists transit through here, or they depend on Bay-based services: hospitals, clinics, accommodations, restaurants and logistics.
There are also massive service delivery failures. We know the violence that has occurred in protest of service delivery failures, like the barricading of major roads (such as the R75), which were blocked by burning tyres. Access routes to Kariega were blocked.
These are not isolated incidents. They are symptoms of frustration, anger, and organised crime. And in these times, it’s you, the hard-working people of Nelson Mandela Bay, who fix the potholes and street lights! You get things done. You are the ones rebuilding this Bay.
But you shouldn’t have to! Streetlights, potholes, water, electricity are the municipality’s job, and they’re simply not doing it.
You know, in the last financial year, Nelson Mandela Bay’s Electricity and Energy Directorate spent R707 million more than what it got from electricity sales.
Meanwhile, the municipality failed to spend R152 million of its budget for maintenance. So what are they buying with all your electricity payments, when they can’t even use some of that money to maintain crumbling electricity infrastructure?
It’s not right, and you don’t have to just accept it!
I get it, you’re frustrated with this ANC coalition in Nelson Mandela Bay. Look what they’ve done here. So, you might think “I’ll vote for a smaller party, because they have new ideas”. But a smaller party won’t help you, because they get drawn into the same coalition and pushed around.
This election is not about new ideas. It’s about service delivery. Something which you once had here, but don’t have anymore. This election is simply about rebuilding. We know what Nelson Mandela Bay was, and what it can be again, if you vote for the DA!
I have a vision of this city where crime is tackled thoroughly, where children can play safely, where our environment is clean and our streets are lit.
It is a vision of competence, accountability and hope.
You know, there was a time in recent memory (between September 2022 and May 2023) where we got a glimpse of improvement.
A time when the municipality did its job!
In those nine months, this city began to show the green shoots of the needed turnaround: better service delivery; cracking down on corruption; a growing metro police force; a revitalised economy.
Because it was under DA governance!
Under Retief Odendaal’s leadership, Nelson Mandela Bay achieved its first unqualified audit in 12 years.
Retief showed what competent, fair leadership can do.
And it can happen here again!
This election, you have the power to bring back basic service delivery!
To bring back a party that cares about your city as much as you do!
Just look at what the DA has done in uMngeni in KZN, or in Midvaal in Gauteng, or even down the road in Kouga! The DA governs there and the potholes are fixed, the electricity is on, and the water is consistently in the taps! It shows that where the DA governs, we work with you and for you, not against you.
That is the only thing that matters in this election: will the party you vote for give you water, electricity, fixed roads and collect your rubbish?
If you’re not 100% certain that they will, don’t vote for them!
When considering who to vote for, it’s not about their ideology or whether you’ve voted for them before.
It’s quite simply this: “will they spend my tax money on giving me what the constitution says I must have?”
I think we all know that there is only one party in South Africa that does that: the blue party, the DA!
So, I say to you today, do you want to rebuild together? Ruk reg!
Nelson Mandela Bay does not need to settle for neglect and mismanagement. The people of this Bay deserve a city where:
- You can walk safely at night;
- Your children can play in completed sports fields, not half-built ones;
- Tourists hear about our beaches, our culture, not about shootings, kidnappings or abandoned buildings;
- Government funds are spent, not returned; budgets are honoured, infrastructure is real.
This vision requires the courage to demand better. It requires good, solid leadership.
As leader of the DA, I commit today that under DA governance in Nelson Mandela Bay, we will:
- Create a safe environment where life is cherished and business can thrive.
- Ensure that municipal departments deliver the services you need by improving efficiency and reducing losses
- Get the basics right, which means restoring streetlights, roads, water, sanitation — the services that people expect and deserve;
- Rebuild public trust by rooting out corruption!
And above all, we will make Nelson Mandela Bay a Bay of promise: a place where your children can dream, where investors and tourists come because they are safe, where service delivery is not a slogan, but actually happens!
You deserve that. And we have the candidate for mayor, Retief Odendaal, who will serve you honestly, fairly and tirelessly. He lives here. He raises his children here. This is his home. He wants it to succeed, just like you do! He has proved that he’ll give you fixed roads and pipes, restored water, made sure the lights are on and he’s paid the bills. He’s put you first before, and he’ll put you first again!
Let us rebuild together, making this Bay a place of safety, pride, opportunity, dignity and hope!
Let us demonstrate what it means to put people at the centre of politics, and how better governance will put money back into communities and the pockets of citizens.
Let’s rebuild! Ruk reg!
Let’s get Nelson Mandela Bay working again, with Retief as our mayor!