The embattled Mayor of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro in the Eastern Cape, Eugene Johnson has vowed to carry out her mayoral duties to ensure that services are delivered to the residents. That’s despite calls for her to vacate her position.
She says she will not allow opposition parties to prevent her from executing her duties.
The mayor is in East London attending the Council of Mayors hosted by the South African Local Government Association (SALGA).
During his keynote address at the event, President Cyril Ramaphosa called for mayors to prioritise serving the public and not be self-serving individuals.
Dysfunctional municipalities received attention at this gathering. They were urged to bolster efforts to deliver basic services to communities. The instability in the council of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro was also in the spotlight.
Mayor Nelson Mandela Bay Metro Eugene Johnson says, “There is leadership in that municipality. l am the mayor and we have a city manager, we are leading that municipality in so far as service delivery is concerned, our revenue collection has increased. We have a funded budget our financial situation is stable it doesn’t matter what our adversaries say or what smaller parties do. We are forging ahead to ensure that services are delivered.”
With 80 municipalities being in coalition governments, there were calls for more regulation of coalitions.
SALGA’s president Bheki Stofile says, “Salga developed a framework on coalition governments, how to manage coalitions as they have risen. We have realized that there are some challenges in coalition governments and our view as Salga is to continue to lobby and advocate and represent the interests of the sector coalition framework agreement that must be signed amongst the parties.”
The two-day summit resolved that mayors should promote strong governance and improve financial management.
