Get to know Executive Mayor Nqaba Bhanga

Nqaba was born in KwaZakhele, Nelson Mandela Bay in 1977. He started his primary schooling at Ebhongweni Primary School at age eight due to his mother’s unemployment – she could not afford to register Nqaba or acquire a birth certificate to prove his age.

It was at the historic KwaZakhele High School that he first got involved in politics, elected the regional chairperson of the Congress of South African Students (Cosas).

Nqaba later joined the African National Congress and became Nelson Mandela Bay ANC Youth Leader and served as SRC president at the Port Elizabeth Technikon (now Nelson Mandela University) where he graduated with his first qualification in Public Administration.

Nqaba also served as the national secretary general of the South African Student Congress (SASCO), and then the youth leader of the breakaway Congress of the People (COPE) and its member of Parliament, before joining the DA in 2014.

The decision to join the Democratic Alliance followed a conversation with former Federal Chairperson, Athol Trollip, where they agreed that the people of Nelson Mandela Bay needed leaders to work together to save first Nelson Mandela Bay and, ultimately, the Eastern Cape and South Africa. His decision was also motivated by the fact that the DA’s values and principles align with his own, in particular his commitment to reconciliation, redress and non-racialism.

Nqaba was elected as the DA Eastern Cape provincial leader in 2017 and is currently serving his second term in this position after being elected unopposed at the provincial congress in 2020.

In his political career Nqaba has always been guided by his strong commitment to his values and his deeply held belief in good governance, non-racialism and reconciliation. Nqaba believes that the DA is key to the success of South Africa’s political realignment and the only hope for a prosperous South Africa.