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A fruitful and solid 12 year sister city agreement existing between Nelson Mandela Bay and the City of Göteborg in Sweden was reinforced and renewed in February with a visit to the Bay by a high profle Swedish delegation.

The new Mayor of the City of Göteborg, Anneli Hulthen, led the Swedish delegation, and together with the Deputy Executive Mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay, Cllr Nancy Sihlwayi, signed a renewal agreement of the partnership.

The agreement has benefted both the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality and the City of Göteborg over the years through the exchange programmes run in skills development and governance. The NMBM has sent a number of political leaders and municipal offcials to Sweden over the past 12 years to attend programmes relating to different case studies.

The original partnership agreement was signed on 22 November 1999. Initially, the focus areas were arts and culture; business; municipal and urban development; sport, tourism and higher education. Subsequently, three extension agreements were respectively signed (in 2003, 2006 and 2009). Over that period, the areas of focus were reviewed and adjusted according to the current needs. Thus, the areas of focus for the period 2009 to 2011 were sustainable urban development, environmental management, and air-quality management.

The agreement is on a three years renewable contract with the current agreement designed to have other clearly defned objectives and focus areas. Deputy Executive Mayor, Cllr Nancy Sihlwayi, said the new agreement will focus on building capacity and strengthening the democracy of the two sister cities.

“We want to share ideas and skills on areas such as waste management, environment management and governance in terms of strengthening our own democracies. The agreement we have is unique and a lesson to all other municipalities in the country. As the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality we have benefted greatly from the agreement, with our offcials receiving world class training in crucial areas of service delivery,” said Cllr Sihlwayi.

The Nelson Mandela Bay and Göteborg partnership is currently regarded as a benchmark by the South African National Department of International Relations as an example for other Municipality’s in the country to follow suit.

“We are pleased that this partnership has been recognised as an example for other Municipality’s to learn lessons on how to maintain and sustain a successful sister city partnership,” said Cllr Sihlwayi.

City of Göteborg Mayor, Anneli Hulthen, said that they were excited to enter another chapter of partnership with the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality after “such a long and successful period of partnership.”

‘We have so much to share with the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, as our cities are so similar both economically and geographically. In the past years, Göteborg has learnt many lessons from the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, and we have also tried our best to share whatever skills we have with them. We will now be taking the partnership to another level. Sustainable development, waste management and environmental issues will be our areas of focus. We are looking forward to another three successful years,” said Mayor Hulthen.

Among the highlights over the sister city partnership period include: ·

The establishment of mutually benefcial exchange programmes between the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and the Göteborg University (e.g. the Peer-help Programme). · Altogether 19 NMBM library staff members paid working visits to Göteborg; artists from Göteborg trained NMBM librarians in working with children in art projects, focusing on textile art, embroidery, ceramics, painting and drawings, as well as a school reading project between school children in both NMBM and Göteborg to promote the culture of reading.

Various arts and culture projects undertaken included an exhibition of the works of NMBM artists in Göteborg in 2001; the publication of a poetry anthology, entitled “Weaving the Thread”, consisting of poems written by residents of NMBM and Göteborg, as well as the “Memories of the Past” Projects which highlighted the effects that forced removals under the Group Areas Act had on the lives of South Africans.

An agreement was signed between Nelson Mandela Bay Deputy Executive Mayor, Cllr Nancy Sihlwayi, and Göteborg Mayor, Anneli Hulthen, to renew the sister city partnership between the two cities for an-other three year period following the success of the agreement over the past 12 years. Picture: Riaan Labuschagne