The water and audit record Nelson Mandela Bay’s next council must answer for

Nelson Mandela Bay’s next council will inherit a public record of weaknesses in financial oversight and wastewater management. With municipal elections on 4 November 2026, the accountability question is how those findings become funded repairs, effective monitoring and consequences for failures.

GroundUp’s comparison published on 30 October brings drinking-water compliance, treated sewage and municipal audits into one frame. The records illuminate different parts of the municipality’s responsibilities, with distinct dates and measures.

The financial oversight record

The Auditor-General’s municipal record lists Nelson Mandela Bay’s 2024/25 audit outcome as qualified and unchanged, with findings on performance reporting and compliance with legislation. It covers the year ended 30 June 2025.

AGSA’s Eastern Cape assessment says significant irregular and fruitless and wasteful expenditure at the metro had gone uninvestigated over several years. It identifies inadequate municipal public accounts committee capacity, political instability and key vacancies as obstacles to accountability.

A qualified opinion concerns specific inaccuracies or insufficient evidence in financial statements. It assesses the accounts, rather than water samples.

What the water records cover

GroundUp’s map methodology identifies 2026 drinking-water microbiological compliance data retrieved from DWS on 29 October and a wastewater-compliance export retrieved on 28 October. Those retrieval dates do not establish when every sample was taken or conditions at each tap or beach today.

The SA Human Rights Commission’s findings, published by government on 29 July, recorded elevated contamination at New Brighton and Hobie beaches on 16 March 2026.

The Commission required stronger treatment, monitoring, public warnings and remedial work. It called for implementation reports identifying budgets, responsible officials, timelines and supporting evidence. The March findings are a dated record; conditions can change and require continued monitoring.

The municipality’s recent responses

The city has also published commitments against which progress can be judged. SAnews reported on 24 October that Kings, Humewood and Hobie retained Blue Flag status for 2026/27, and that R5.6 million had been allocated for beach maintenance and upgrades.

In a response carried by SAnews on 26 October, the municipality sought further accredited testing at St Albans Correctional Facility. It said its routine records showed no compromised supply there, while acknowledging that this did not establish quality at every point of consumption.

The municipality identified the Public Works-maintained private pipeline and storage tanks as requiring investigation. That response concerns a particular supply setting; it is not a finding about every household’s water.

Following money through to the service

The next council’s task is to make that record usable: dated monitoring results, the remedial work following incidents and evidence that approved spending reaches completed repairs and effective services.

Residents should be able to follow progress against the Commission’s directions and the audit findings. Identifying responsible officials, explaining missed targets and publishing evidence of improvement would turn accountability into something that can be checked after the campaign.