A strong showing ahead of local elections
Let Us Continue Building
Better Communities, Together.
Nangoza Jebe Hall · 6 September 2026
The ANC Nelson Mandela Region launched its local-government manifesto on Sunday before a strong gathering of supporters, community members and party structures, signalling that the organisation is preparing for a serious campaign in Nelson Mandela Bay ahead of the 4 November local government elections.
The launch was held under the theme “Let Us Continue Building Better Communities, Together.”
The attendance gave the ANC an opportunity to challenge the idea that it has lost its organisational strength or its connection with voters in the metro. While crowd size alone cannot determine electoral support, the event showed that the party retains the ability to mobilise across the region and present a common political programme.
It also marked the beginning of the ANC’s campaign to defend its record in Nelson Mandela Bay and seek a stronger mandate for the next five years.
The manifesto sets out commitments on basic services, infrastructure, investment, jobs, public safety, municipal finances, ethical government and public participation.
Its central argument is that the municipality must protect what has already been achieved, address the services that remain unreliable and create the stability required to complete long-term projects.
A manifesto built around daily life
The document begins with the ordinary experiences through which residents judge local government.
It speaks of water from the tap, working streetlights, regular refuse collection, safe roads, access to employment and municipal officials who respond when residents raise concerns.
That focus is deliberate. The ANC’s local-government campaign is not built only around broad political language. It is attempting to connect the election to the daily experience of households in all 60 wards.
The manifesto acknowledges that residents continue to face water and electricity interruptions, ageing infrastructure, vandalism, slow repairs and unanswered complaints.
It also argues that the municipality must maintain what has been built, fix what is failing and make services more reliable, affordable and responsive.
The ANC is asking residents to judge it on both parts of that record: the progress already made and the work that remains unfinished.
Protect what has already been achieved.
Address the services that remain unreliable and create the stability required to complete long-term projects.
A record the party wants voters to see
The manifesto reports that 97.7% of households have access to water and 95.7% have access to improved sanitation.
During the current term, it says:
- 2 089 households were connected to water and sanitation.
- 285 standpipes were installed in informal settlements.
- 23 570 water meters were replaced.
- 1 186 leaks at indigent households were repaired.
The party links those interventions to larger water-security projects, including Phase 4 of the Coegakop Wellfields, progress on the East-to-West Bulk Water Transfer Pipeline, borehole development and the upgrading of treatment works.
The manifesto also lists eight Water Management Zones, repaired valves and hydrants, remote metering and the rehabilitation of ten reservoirs.
The figures are presented as evidence that the city is expanding access while strengthening the infrastructure required to provide water reliably.
The work, by the numbers
Access does not establish uninterrupted supply.
Household access figure reported in the manifesto.
Water and sanitation connections reported during the term.
Repairs reported by the manifesto, not a count of roads resurfaced.
Registered deeds are distinct from houses constructed.
Reported acquisition cost: R60 million.
Electricity and public lighting
The ANC reports that electricity reaches 94% of households.
It says 472 additional household connections were completed, 297 public lights were installed and 3 708 public lights were retrofitted. Twenty-six power transformers were refurbished, while major transmission lines were maintained.
The manifesto connects public lighting to safer streets, longer productive hours and improved public spaces.
It also places the metro’s energy future within a broader economic strategy, identifying the 15 MW Greenbushes solar farm and the 25 MW Parsons Power Park as projects that could help diversify the city’s energy base.
The document further points to negotiations involving large power users linked to Coega and the opportunity to support industrial development through more reliable energy infrastructure.
Roads and stormwater
Road maintenance forms another major part of the record.
According to the manifesto, the municipality:
- Tarred 7.1 kilometres of gravel roads.
- Graded 15.2 kilometres of roads.
- Constructed 6.7 kilometres of pavements.
- Repaired 23 565 potholes.
- Resurfaced or resealed 27.7 kilometres of roads.
- Completed 1 021 kilometres of road marking.
It also cleaned 35 064 stormwater catchpits, 27.9 kilometres of canals and 12.5 kilometres of stormwater pipes.
The ANC presents this work as part of the basic infrastructure that connects residents to schools, clinics, public transport, jobs and markets.
The manifesto says preventive maintenance should become routine, published and accountable. That would enable residents to see which projects are planned, who is responsible and whether the work has been completed.
Cleaner neighbourhoods
By 30 June 2026, the manifesto says, 98.7% of recognised informal settlements were receiving basic waste-removal services.
The municipality also acquired 16 refuse compactors at a cost of R60 million and upgraded 21 parks and public open spaces.
The ANC links these interventions to public health and community dignity. It argues that no area should be treated as a dumping ground and that clean, maintained public spaces are part of a functioning municipality.
The manifesto proposes a ward-based Cleaning and Greening Programme involving both municipal services and communities.
Under that approach, the municipality would be responsible for collection, cleaning and maintenance, while communities would help protect public spaces once they have been restored.
Housing and ownership
The manifesto reports that approximately 94% of households live in formal dwellings.
During the term, about 626 subsidised houses were constructed, 1 606 sites were serviced and 1 615 title deeds were registered.
The ANC presents title deeds as an important part of the housing programme because they give families legal security and an asset that can be passed to future generations.
The party also places serviced sites and informal-settlement upgrading alongside housing construction, arguing that secure communities require both shelter and access to land and services.
A wider social programme
The manifesto also refers to work at Zwide and Jabavu stadiums, the modular library at Chatty/Bethelsdorp, the upgrade of Gelvandale Swimming Pool and the continued participation of five beaches in the Blue Flag Programme.
These projects are presented as investments in the social life of the metro.
The ANC’s position is that a municipality must provide more than basic utilities. It must also create spaces where young people can develop their abilities, families can gather and communities can build a stronger sense of belonging.
Strengthening the municipality
The manifesto reports that more than 400 posts were filled in critical functions and that two senior-management positions were filled by 30 June 2026.
It also records the appointment of 136 graduates and 19 experiential learners, including 124 young graduates.
These appointments are intended to strengthen municipal capacity and provide young people with work experience.
The document also refers to reforms in water, electricity and solid-waste trading services. The measure of those reforms will be whether they improve the reliability, financial performance and accountability of the services residents depend on.
Investment and local economic development
The manifesto presents Nelson Mandela Bay as an industrial, logistics, automotive, tourism, agricultural and oceans-economy centre.
It reports that approximately R1.45 billion in investment was facilitated across developments involving retail, cold storage, automotive glass and hospitality.
The document also records:
- 40 cruise-liner calls.
- Approximately 79 421 cruise passengers.
- An estimated R129.6 million economic impact from cruise activity.
- 15 supported business events.
- More than 6 000 delegates attracted through those events.
- An estimated R204.5 million generated by business events.
- 222 072 foreign tourists in 2024/25.
- Approximately 1.2 million domestic tourists.
- An estimated R6.21 billion direct contribution from tourism to the local economy.
The ANC says these visitors support local accommodation, transport, food, retail, cultural and township enterprises.
It also reports support for approximately 3 500 MSMEs and entrepreneurs, training and equipment for 650 farmers and R243 million in Fresh Produce Market sales in 2025/26.
Building-plan applications for developments below 500 square metres were processed in an average of 11 days against a 30-day target.
The party presents faster approvals as part of its effort to make the municipality an enabler of investment rather than an obstacle to development.
The challenges the manifesto acknowledges
The document does not claim that the metro’s problems have disappeared.
It acknowledges ongoing water and electricity interruptions, ageing infrastructure, vandalism, theft, potholes, sewer spills, illegal dumping and slow fault-reporting systems.
It also records an improvement in revenue collection from 76.6% in June 2026 to 78.3% in July 2026, while noting that the rate remains too low to sustain the quality of services residents deserve.
The manifesto’s argument is that progress has to be protected and deepened through stable leadership, stronger municipal capacity and clear accountability.
That is also the basis of the ANC’s request for a stronger mandate.
The party says coalition stability since May 2023 helped restore functioning council structures, but that fragmented authority has limited the speed and consistency of implementation.
Its proposal is to move from agreement to action, from plans to completed projects and from promises to measurable results.
A strong opening to the campaign
The manifesto launch gave the ANC Nelson Mandela Region a platform to present that argument before a substantial audience.
It showed a party capable of mobilising its structures and supporters around a local programme. It placed service delivery and municipal performance at the centre of the campaign. It also gave the ANC an opportunity to confront the electorate’s concerns rather than campaign as though the metro’s problems do not exist.
The challenge now is to convert the energy of the launch into a disciplined campaign in every ward.
The manifesto provides the material: a record to defend, a programme for 2026–2031 and an accountability plan built around public reporting.
The campaign will now have to show residents how those commitments will be implemented in their communities.
Vote ANC | 4 November 2026
Source and further reading
Performance figures and project descriptions in this article are attributed to the ANC’s regional manifesto supplied to the desk. Access statistics, reported work during the term, projects in progress and future commitments are distinct. The rally photographs document the launch; they are not evidence of completed infrastructure projects.