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What a positive and uplifting start to the year for Nelson Mandela Bay!. Major milestones were achieved, ensuring that our city is placed on a positive growth path for the next few years. Along with my political leadership counterparts, I have been actively facilitating and supporting various megaprojects in the city to ensure that we feed our local economy, and in turn, contribute toward job creation, sustainable communities and skills development, which are all in line with government’s list of priorities.

Through the Education Task Team, we have identifed the many challenges facing our disadvantaged schools and learners and are addressing some of the challenges together with the Department of Education and the private sector. The Education Task Team launched a Uniform Collection Drive to provide every learner in need with school shoes and uniforms. The response has been overwhelming and heart-warming, and we thank those who donated, for caring and making a difference in a child’s life.

In March, we witnessed the signing of the lease agreement between the Coega Development Corporation and Chinese automotive giants, First Automobile Works (FAW). This investment heralds great things for our city and the Eastern Cape Province, not only creating jobs for our people, but also demonstrating to the world the confdence placed in the economic benefts offered by our region.

This is a big leap for the CDC, and we look forward to more deals of this nature being signed in the near future. The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality is fully committed to supporting international investments that can contribute to the growth of our local economy and the development of the talents and skills of our people.

The spotlight has certainly been placed on the economic growth of the city. President Jacob Zuma summed it up succintly when he visited the city to open the Port of Ngqura at the Coega Industrial Zone, proclaiming: “Let us make a pledge that together we will for the next 20 years have a single-minded focus on economic development. Let us focus exclusively on how we can build a better life for all our people.”

And creating a better life for all starts with listening to the needs of our people, which we did through an extensive public participation process during which we visited our communities in all 60 Wards of Nelson Mandela Bay to engage them on service delivery issues. The programme was well supported by our communities, and we

While we acknowledge our challenges as a Municipality, we also want to celebrate with our communities the successes

we have achieved over the past fnancial year. We improved on housing delivery, providing hundreds of our people with decent homes, we tarred kilometers of gravel roads, and we launched new customer care centres in our largest townships. We accelerated service delivery through the introduction of a 24 hour call centre. We also won another Vuna Award, for achieving an unqualifed audit outcome for four successive years. This proves our commitment to clean, accountable governance and ridding the Municipality of fraud and corruption.

Our focus is frmly on capacitating our youth through various development initiatives, and we encourage them to utilise the youth development facilities being developed in various areas, such as the Walmer Youth Centre, which is in an advanced stage of construction. These facilities will support and nurture our youth towards a sustainable future.

Our aim is to build a city of hope! Because we are named after the great Nelson Mandela, the onus is on us as citizens of this city to uphold the ideals of the Father of the Nation. Our successful hosting of international sport games and tournaments at our iconic Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium is further proof that we can achieve anything that we put our minds to. Our city is fast developing a magnetic energy that is drawing more opportunity and more people to our shores, and we are determined to keep the momentum going.

In honour of International Women’s Day and Human Rights Day, both celebrated in March, let me salute all our heroes and heroines who ensured that today we can direct our focus on another struggle: the fght for economic freedom. Although we should not forget our past, let us build our future together, regardless of race, gender, political preference or any other barrier.

Service delivery! Service delivery! Service delivery! That is the focus of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality – and that is the focus of this edition of Ubuntu Community Magazine.

Everyday, thousands of politicians and offcials make a wholesomely positive difference in the lives of the people of Nelson Mandela Bay by building a house, constructing a road, connecting water, supplying electricity, putting out a fre, flling a pothole, sorting out a municipal account, picking up waste, sweeping a street, cleaning a drain, hosting an economy-injecting event, keeping the roads safe, inviting investment, and a host of other services. Granted, not all of these services are delivered perfectly all of the time – but by and large the men and women of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality strive on a daily basis to ensure a better life for all.

Look out for some of the service delivery updates in this edition and please provide us with your feedback on how we can make your lives better.

We have an exciting month to look forward to in our beautiful Bay! Two of South Africa’s biggest events take place in April, the annual Splash Festival over the Easter weekend and the Specsavers Ironman South Africa on 22 April. Our shores will once again be packed to capacity with locals and visitors, all gathering to enjoy the entertainment and the natural beauty that our city has to offer. These events are among the 101 reasons to love Nelson Mandela Bay, and Tourism has embarked upon a splendid campaign to get

you to realise and enjoy all 101 reasons… Economic development, trade and investment are taking off on the same sunny shores – so much so that even President

Jacob Zuma was here to celebrate with us the developments and investments at the Coega Industrial Development Zone.

Most importantly, all these services, infrastructure and development take place within the strategic programme of the city, which is captured in the fve-year Integrated Development Plan (IDP). The IDP is the product of extensive community participation, and this programme was held throughout the Bay during March.

Finally, by the time you read this, the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Council would have welcomed three new Ward Councillors following the tragic passing away of Cllrs Ngqondi, Gumede and Lose.

The new Ward Councillors take up their positions through an election and this should always serve as a stark and happy reminder that South Africa (and you as a South African) serves as an excellent example of a full and open democratic state in all respects. We welcome the three new Ward Councillors to the NMBM team, which every day strives to ensure a better life for all! Working together we can build better communities!