South Africa: Nelson Mandela Bay Groups Warn Government Plan Could Fail Again

16 December 2025
Scrolla (Johannesburg)
By Anita Dangazele
  • Civil society leaders in Nelson Mandela Bay welcome a new government intervention but warn past secretive approaches failed and must change now.
  • The coalition says businesses and community groups must be involved or the Section 154 support will not fix services.

Residents, workers and business owners in Nelson Mandela Bay live with broken services, failing roads and a local economy under pressure.

Now civil society groups say the government's latest plan to help the city could work, but only if people on the ground are fully involved.

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The Nelson Mandela Bay Civil Society Coalition cautiously welcomes the decision to invoke Section 154 of the Constitution for the fourth time. Section 154 allows the national government to support struggling municipalities.

But the coalition warns previous interventions failed because they were handled in a secretive and exclusionary way.

The group says a meeting on 6 December 2025, led by Cooperative Governance Minister Hlabisa, gave them some hope. They say the minister agreed that civil society and business must be part of fixing the city.

Coalition chairperson Monga Peter says they support the intervention, but not with a "blank cheque".

He says any involvement must be independent, transparent and accountable. He warns that without skilled teams, proper resources and freedom to act, the process will mean nothing.

Peter says the city's decline is not caused by a lack of money. He says it is caused by collapsed leadership, weak accountability and poor governance.

The coalition points to underspending by the municipality, crumbling infrastructure, struggling businesses and worsening service delivery. They describe the situation as a full-blown crisis for people living and working in the city.

The group welcomes the mayor's promise of a turnaround session on 30 January 2026. They say they will keep pushing for urgent and practical changes that match a detailed proposal they submitted in September.

The coalition includes non-profits, faith-based groups, churches, business, labour and youth organisations. It says it is non-partisan and focused on the city's long-term future.

Read the original article on Scrolla.

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