Slumlords, Your Day is Coming
www.MyPE.co.za:
Executive Mayor Zanoxolo Wayile today established a Heritage Task Team
in a decisive move to ensure the protection of Nelson Mandela Bay’s
heritage, including the restoration, renovation and refurbishment of
those buildings which have deteriorated due to, inter alia, neglect by
respective owners.
The move comes exactly 60 days since the new political leadership
assumed office and brings closer to reality the promise made by Mayor
Wayile that the deteriorating heritage buildings and social
infrastructure throughout Nelson Mandela Bay will be salvaged urgently.
The high level multi-party Heritage Task Team will report directly to
Mayor Wayile and comprises Deputy Executive Mayor, Cllr Nancy Sihlwayi,
who is the convenor of the team, Mayoral Committee Members Cllr Melvin
Manentsa (Infrastructure, Engineering, Electricity & Energy),
Cllr Anne-Marie Van Jaarsveld (Economic Development, Tourism &
Agriculture) & Cllr Arnold Scholtz (Budget & Treasury),
DA councillors Terry Herbst & Jeremy Davis, Cllr Mongameli
Bobani of the United Democratic Movement and Cllr Pule Lonake of the
Pan Africanist Congress. The Office of the Municipal Manager and the
Legal Services Office will provide administrative support to the team.
Mayor Wayile was adamant that the mandate of the Heritage Task Team was
to look at all areas of Nelson Mandela Bay. “The team has to look at
deteriorating buildings, not just in the Port Elizabeth city center,
but throughout the entire Bay, including Uitenhage, Despatch, our
townships and the Northern Areas, in order to ensure the heritage, and
therefore, the dignity, pride and history of our city is preserved,”
said Mayor Wayile.
Mayor Wayile also expects firm recommendations from the team and
stressed the urgency of the task at hand at a meeting with all members
of the team today. “I have told the team that we expect a report with
concrete recommendations within two weeks.”
“In addition to inspecting buildings throughout Nelson Mandela Bay, the
team will expeditiously consider the report which has been in Council
for a long time and the legal opnion that advises on intervention
alternatives so as to determine the appropriate course of action. We do
not want any further delays in addressing this matter. We have to act
decisively now, and we thus await the recommendations of the team, so
that we fulfill our objectives in this regard,” added Mayor Wayile.
Mayor Wayile has already engaged the Chief Executive Officer of the
National Heritage Council, Advocate Sonwabile Mangcotywa, to discuss
preliminary arrangements for speedy intervention in restoring heritage
buildings and affected social infrastructure.
Member of the newly established Heritage Task Team, Cllr Terry Herbst
said: “I have the greatest respect for Mayor Wayile for moving very
quickly to find a solution on this project. He has done (a lot) in two
months to get this project moving. I’m delighted to be a member of the
Task Team and I look forward to working with my colleagues on this
extremely important project which will benefit the city immensely”.
Just three days after Executive Mayor Zanoxolo Wayile called for unity
and an end to political bickering (at a meeting of the Nelson Mandela
Bay Municipal Council held on Monday, 25 January 2010), Mayor Wayile
today established a task team comprising no less than four political
parties – a first for Nelson Mandela Bay!
The Heritage Task Team – which will be responsible for vigorously
protecting the heritage of Nelson Mandela Bay, in particular buildings
throughout the entire Bay area – comprises four Councillors of the ANC,
all of whom serve on the Mayoral Committee, two from the DA, one from
the PAC and one from the UDM.
“This Task Team has been assembled in order to decisively deal with a
matter of common interest to all residents of Nelson Mandela Bay, that
is the protection of our heritage, including the restoration of
deteriorating buildings,” said Mayor Wayile.
The move is said to be unprecedented in the history of the Nelson
Mandela Bay Municipality. It marks a bold step towards the realisation
of cooperative political relations in Council which, according to Mayor
Wayile, are a necessary step to making sure the Bay achieves greater
levels of success and prosperity.
“We are indeed proud of the fact that we have achieved this milestone.
The extent to which the different political parties have accepted
cooperative politics without losing frankness and commitment to making
this Council work is encouraging. We hope to see more political
maturity and putting of people’s needs ahead of petty political party
differences. If we continue in this way, we are sure to see our city
through difficult times together and create the prosperous and globally
competitive city we all dream of,” said Mayor Wayile.
The Heritage Task Team will report directly to the Executive Mayor and
their first report is expected within two weeks.
Editors Note:
MyPE sincerely hopes
that the task team will ensure that ALL heritage structures are
attended to – a recent visit to Emlotheni by MyPE in December 2009
revealed that the ‘only’ ‘improvement’ to that monument was the
addition of another pallisade fence blocking off access to the
entrance. The moument itself is still in a shocking state.
We trust too that
cogniscance will be taken of lost heritage sites such as the Red
Location Cottages and a sustainable body, with teeth, will be put in
place to ensure that this does not happen again.
The Save
Our City campaign can pat themselves on the back for adding
to this breakthrough – see, a little bit of agitating and toyi toying
does work!
See: Emlotheni Images | Emlotheni Memorial Park Disgrace.
Port Elizabeth Budget Accommodation
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