GOOD Statement by Lawrence Troon,
GOOD Nelson Mandela Bay Councillor
30 April 2025
The GOOD Party expresses deep concern over the continued delay in repairing the Matanzima Bridge in KwaNobuhle, which collapsed during the June 2024 floods. Despite the allocation of R89 million through the Municipal Disaster Response Grant, no progress has been made to restore this critical piece of infrastructure.
Worse still, the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality is now facing escalating legal threats over the irregular appointment of contractors, raising serious questions about governance, transparency, and accountability.
In a letter addressed to Acting City Manager Ted Pillay, the GOOD Party has outlined serious concerns regarding the municipality’s ongoing abuse of informal tender processes and its reliance on legal opinions to justify questionable contract deviations. These actions not only violate supply chain management policies but also place vital disaster relief funding at risk.
Key concerns raised in the letter include:
• Illegal use of contract deviations as a routine mechanism without consequence or accountability.
• Outsourcing of legal opinions at high cost, despite the fact that these are accounting and governance matters best addressed by the Auditor-General.
• Failure to adhere to proper procurement processes, bypassing triennial contracts and instead appointing contractors through an informal process, capped at R200,000, yet awarding multimillion-rand projects through this mechanism.
• Potential loss of R89 million in National Treasury funding due to avoidable delays and improper tendering.
The GOOD Party recommends the following urgent actions:
• Immediate consequence management for officials who failed to advertise expiring contracts in a timely manner.
• A full audit of tenders advertised in the past two years that remain unawarded.
• A strict three-month cap on contract deviations to ensure tenders are advertised and awarded promptly.
• Centralisation of procurement within Supply Chain Management to prevent departmental abuse of procurement powers.
The continued manipulation of procurement processes to benefit politically connected contractors under the guise of emergencies is unacceptable. These practices undermine public trust and directly harm the communities waiting on critical infrastructure repairs.
The Section 154 intervention was meant to bring capable leadership into the municipality. Yet, the crisis appears to be deepening under current management. The GOOD Party demands a clear action plan from the Acting City Manager, with timelines for implementing reforms and holding accountable those responsible for ongoing failures.
Media enquiries:media@forgood.org.za