The city the ANC had to build

A water connection does not announce the political party that helped build it. A sewer line does not carry a party-coloured flag. A tarred road simply gets people where they need to go.

But in Nelson Mandela Bay, many of the services residents use today are part of a public infrastructure foundation laid during the years when the African National Congress governed the municipality with a direct majority.

That is the part of the story often left out.

The ANC did not inherit a finished city. It governed a post-apartheid municipality in which access to water, sanitation, roads, waste removal and public facilities remained deeply unequal. Its task was to extend services, build infrastructure and bring historically neglected communities into the municipal system.

That work is still visible today.

The figures now being highlighted in the ANC’s “The Work We Have Done” campaign are not achievements that began in isolation in 2023: 97.7% household access to water, 95.7% access to sanitation and 1 100 fewer households using the bucket system. They are the product of a longer process, much of it built during the ANC’s period of majority rule. The campaign builds on the Masakhe manifesto the movement launched ahead of the 4 November local government elections.

This is the second episode of The People’s Register’s Building Better Communities series. It follows the ANC-led recovery in Tshwane, where the same argument is being tested: that disciplined ANC governance still delivers for residents.

The metro’s 2022/23 annual report recorded that 99.2% of households had access to water-supply infrastructure at the RDP standard or higher. It also recorded that formal settlements were provided with individual sewer connections, while informal settlements were being served through a combination of buckets, chemical toilets, communal toilets and ablution blocks.

Those figures show both the achievement and the unfinished task.

The achievement is that the overwhelming majority of households have been brought into a basic water and sanitation system. The unfinished task is that access is not yet equal in every community, and that the remaining households are often those facing the greatest poverty and the most difficult infrastructure conditions.

That is why the ANC’s current programme should not be presented as though it started with a campaign post. It is a continuation of a long developmental project.

What the coalition years changed

The second part of the story is what happened after that majority was lost.

The 2016 local-government election ended the ANC’s outright majority in Nelson Mandela Bay. The Democratic Alliance became the largest party, but no party held enough seats to govern alone.

The city then entered a period of coalition government. Coalition government is not automatically a failure. It can work when parties agree on a programme, share responsibility and provide consistent leadership.

But Nelson Mandela Bay did not experience that kind of stability consistently.

The metro saw changes in political leadership and shifting alliances. Academic research on South African municipalities found that frequent leadership changes in Nelson Mandela Bay affected performance and service delivery. The same research notes that the collapse of the DA-led coalition in 2018 contributed to the instability of the governing arrangement.

For residents, political instability is not an abstract constitutional question. It affects the practical business of running a city.

A water-treatment upgrade requires planning across budget cycles. A road programme requires procurement, engineering and maintenance. A sanitation project requires land, design, construction and operational support. Waste management depends on reliable fleets, contracts, depots and daily coordination.

When political leadership changes repeatedly, the work does not necessarily stop. But it becomes harder to protect priorities, maintain accountability and complete projects on schedule.

The coalition years therefore disrupted more than political control. They disrupted continuity.

The ANC had to change

The ANC’s response could not be to pretend that the loss of its majority had not happened.

The movement had to accept the message from voters, examine its own weaknesses and rebuild its relationship with communities. It had to understand that a history of having built infrastructure was not, by itself, enough to secure continued public trust.

That required political humility.

The ANC had to return to the people, listen to complaints and confront the reasons residents had become dissatisfied. Its platform for that renewal is the Masakhe manifesto and its community participation commitments, from ward meetings to the way residents hold their representatives to account.

It had to improve its local organisation and demonstrate that it could govern in a new environment.

The result since 2023 has been an ANC-led coalition government, not an ANC majority administration. The ANC remains the largest party in the council but does not have the 61 seats required to govern alone. The current coalition includes the ANC, EFF, National Alliance, AIC and PAC.

That arrangement has required the ANC to negotiate with other parties and to govern through cooperation. It has also required the party to make a case for its leadership every day, not only during elections.

The ANC’s position is that coalition leadership can work when it is directed toward delivery. That is the test now being applied in Nelson Mandela Bay.

Nelson Mandela Bay’s current progress is built on the ANC’s historic foundation, interrupted by coalition instability and now being recovered through a renewed ANC-led administration.

Water and sanitation: recovering the basics

The strongest evidence of the current programme is found in water and sanitation.

According to the ANC Nelson Mandela Region campaign figures, 97.7% of households now have access to water and 95.7% have access to sanitation. Around 1 100 fewer households are using the bucket system.

The municipality’s official planning documents record a basic sanitation-access indicator of 96.12% and confirm that upgrading water-treatment and wastewater-treatment infrastructure remains part of the city’s programme.

These figures should be understood in context. They do not mean that every household receives the same level of service, nor that the metro has eliminated every water and sanitation problem. They mean that the ANC-led government is building on a large existing base of service access while addressing the remaining gaps.

The reduction in the bucket-system backlog is especially important.

For families still using buckets, sanitation is not a policy category. It is a daily indignity. It affects safety, privacy, health and the conditions in which children grow up.

Removing 1 100 households from that system is therefore a material improvement. It does not eliminate the backlog, but it demonstrates that the municipality can move households from temporary and inadequate arrangements toward more dignified services.

The work is also being done at infrastructure level. Water-treatment facilities have been upgraded to improve reliability, while the municipality’s plans identify maintenance and refurbishment of treatment works as necessary to protect the system over time.

House infographic: water and sanitation delivery in Nelson Mandela Bay. 97.7% of households have access to water, 95.7% have access to sanitation, bucket usage has decreased by 1 100, and various water-treatment plants have been upgraded.
The basics on record. The ANC Nelson Mandela Region campaign figures on water and sanitation: 97.7% of households with access to water, 95.7% with access to sanitation, bucket usage down by 1 100 and water-treatment plants upgraded. Source: ANC Nelson Mandela Region, issued by Florence Matomela House.

This is where the ANC’s historic foundation and current programme meet. The old network makes expansion possible. The current administration’s responsibility is to repair it, extend it and ensure that it continues to serve communities.

Roads that connect communities

The same argument applies to roads.

Since 2023, the ANC-led government reports that 7.1 kilometres of gravel roads have been tarred and 6.7 kilometres of sidewalks have been constructed. It has also launched the “Fill Up the Bay” pothole-repair campaign.

These interventions matter because roads are part of the social infrastructure of a city. They connect people to work, schools, clinics, public transport and local businesses. Sidewalks make those connections safer for pedestrians, particularly children, older people and residents with disabilities.

The municipality’s financial plans place roads, stormwater, transportation and fleet services among its major budget priorities. That is how municipal budgets become the projects residents can see and the road programme depends on that planning cycle being protected.

The “Fill Up the Bay” campaign gives the road programme a public face. Launched across all 60 wards, it is intended to accelerate pothole repairs and address related road and stormwater problems. Reports on the launch put the value of the campaign at R60 million.

The ANC should present this as a recovery programme, not as a claim that the roads were neglected only recently.

The metro has a substantial maintenance burden. Roads deteriorate because of age, heavy traffic, stormwater damage and inadequate maintenance. The responsibility of the current administration is to confront that backlog systematically.

Tarring a gravel road is therefore not a cosmetic intervention. It is a permanent improvement to the quality of movement in a community. Building a sidewalk is not decoration. It is a public-safety measure.

House infographic: roads and movement in Nelson Mandela Bay. 7.1 km of gravel roads tarred, 6.7 km of sidewalks constructed, and the pothole-repair campaign launched with R60 million allocated across all 60 wards.
Roads that connect. Campaign figures record 7.1 km of gravel roads tarred and 6.7 km of sidewalks constructed, alongside the R60 million “Fill Up the Bay” pothole-repair campaign across all 60 wards. Sources: ANC Nelson Mandela Region campaign; Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, August 2026.

Cleaner neighbourhoods, healthier people

Waste removal is another measure of whether local government is present in people’s lives.

The ANC campaign material reports that 98.7% of informal settlements receive basic waste-removal services. The municipality’s recent performance reporting separately recorded regular waste removal in 98% of recognised informal settlements, above its target of 85%.

The two figures use different measures, so they should be read side by side rather than mixed. The direction of the work is evident: waste removal is being strengthened in communities where irregular collection can quickly become a public-health problem.

The unveiling of nine new refuse compactor trucks, six of them handed over by Executive Mayor Babalwa Lobishe in July, adds capacity to the system. Valued at R34 million and funded through the Urban Settlements Development Grant, the vehicles are intended to improve collection schedules, reduce breakdown-related delays and help the municipality respond more effectively to growing service demands.

The upgrading of more than 21 public parks and open spaces extends the public-health argument beyond refuse collection. A maintained park gives children a safe place to play, creates space for recreation and improves the quality of the surrounding neighbourhood.

A clean, maintained public space tells residents that the municipality sees their community as worth investing in.

House infographic: public health and waste in Nelson Mandela Bay. 98.7% of informal settlements receive basic waste-removal services, more than 21 public parks and open spaces upgraded, and nine refuse compactor trucks worth R34 million added to the fleet.
Cleaner neighbourhoods. The campaign records basic waste-removal services in 98.7% of informal settlements and more than 21 public parks and open spaces upgraded. The municipality has added nine refuse compactors worth R34 million. Sources: ANC Nelson Mandela Region campaign; Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, July 2026.

Electricity belongs in the same account of the basics. The campaign figures record that 94% of households have access to electricity, that 3 708 public lights have been retrofitted and that 26 power transformers have been refurbished. Street lighting and transformer maintenance are quiet forms of delivery: they rarely make headlines, but they keep neighbourhoods safer and businesses running after dark.

The case the ANC must make

The ANC’s case in Nelson Mandela Bay should not be that everything is fixed.

That argument would not be credible. The municipality still faces infrastructure backlogs, water losses, service interruptions, financial pressure and unequal conditions between formal and informal settlements. Its own planning documents continue to identify these challenges.

The stronger argument is this:

The ANC built the foundation. Coalition instability disrupted continuity. The ANC then returned to the drawing board, accepted the need to change and took responsibility for leading a new coalition focused on recovery and delivery.

That argument is stronger because it accounts for the whole history.

It gives credit where it is due for the infrastructure and service access established during the ANC’s majority years. It explains why the coalition period mattered. It recognises the ANC’s own need for renewal. And it gives residents a basis for judging the current administration by measurable work.

The ANC is not asking people to forget the problems. It is asking them to recognise the progress and to compare the current direction with the instability that came before it.

The party’s message is that local government requires more than a temporary political arrangement. It requires a long-term developmental programme, capable administration and leadership that is prepared to take responsibility when conditions become difficult.

Nelson Mandela Bay’s story supports that argument.

The work continues

The ANC’s contribution to Nelson Mandela Bay is not contained in one term or one campaign.

It is found in the infrastructure that has served communities for years. It is found in the households that have gained access to water and sanitation. It is found in the reduction of the bucket backlog. It is found in the current work to upgrade treatment facilities, tar roads, construct sidewalks, repair potholes, improve waste collection, restore public spaces and keep the lights on.

Since 2023, the ANC-led coalition has had to govern under more difficult political conditions than the majority governments that came before it. It has had to negotiate its way through a divided council while trying to restore continuity to the municipality.

That is why this should be understood as a story of renewal.

The ANC laid the foundation.

Coalition instability interrupted the work.

The ANC reflected, regrouped and returned to lead.

Now, the task is to complete what remains unfinished and to make the metro work better for the people who live in it.

In Nelson Mandela Bay, the work is visible in the water, the sanitation, the roads, the sidewalks, the refuse trucks and the parks.

It is work built over time.

It is work that must continue.

Sources and further reading

This report draws on the ANC Nelson Mandela Region’s “The Work We Have Done” campaign material, Nelson Mandela Bay municipal planning and performance documents, and independent reporting.