Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Gary van Niekerk has welcomed the launch of a R68 million water treatment plant at Orion Engineered Carbons South Africa, recognising it as a significant stride in water conservation efforts.

“[This] is a testimony of what we are capable of as a city when we work closely with big businesses,” he said at the launch.

“These symbiotic relationships can be in the interest of the common good and not just the bottom lines of the business community.”

The pioneering water management system will now pump treated wastewater from the neighbouring Fishwater Flats wastewater treatment plant, and treat it onsite to meet its production standards for non-drinking water use.

The water is for commercial and industrial purposes.

“It is truly a trendsetting step that will hopefully encourage other major businesses to follow in their footsteps,” said Van Niekerk.

The company’s strategic use of treated wastewater reduced its reliance on drinking water, lowering costs and supporting water preservation initiatives.

Orion CEO Corning Painter said that the investment held significant value as it supported water preservation in a region facing water scarcity challenges.

While several companies use treated wastewater from Fishwater Flats for various applications, Orion South Africa is one of the first to use large volumes of wastewater for the purpose of producing carbon black.

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Eastern Cape residents urged to continue using water sparingly as the Department of Water and Sanitation raises concerns on low water levels in the Algoa supply system.

The Department of Water and Sanitation in Eastern Cape has urged residents in the province to continue using water sparingly even as the overall water storage capacity remains above average.

There was a minimal water capacity decrease from last week’s 78.5% to this week’s 78.0% a report from the department on weekly dam levels has shown.

Despite the above average levels, the Algoa Water Supply System (the System has minimally increased from 18.9% to 20.%) remains a serious problem for the department as it has remained consistently low, affecting the provision of water supply in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro.

Kouga Dam is at 22.3% from 19.2%, Impofu Dam on the Krom River has emptied at 6.9% while Kromrivier Dam is also at a low 32.6% from last week’s 29.6%.

Loerie Dam has decreased from 101.2% last week to 95.7% this week and Inqweba Dam is at 36.3% this week compared to 36.6% last week.

Meanwhile, other water supply systems are in a better position as compared to the Algoa Water Supply System.

The Amathole Water Supply System with dams serving Buffalo City Metro is above average, although recording a decrease from 101.6% last week to 100.8% this week.

Nahoon Dam which gets water from the Amathole System is at 99.3% from 99.9%, Bridle Drift Dam is above average at 101.6% from last week’s 102.5% and Rooikrans Dam has increased from 98.9% to 99.5%.

The Klipplaat Water Supply System with dams supplying Komani and surrounding villages remains unchanged at last week’s 100.2%.

Macubeni Dam is sitting at 100%, Xonxa Dam also full at 100.5% and Waterdown Dam providing water to Whittlesea township is sitting at 100.3% this week.

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The explosion led to an electricity blackout of surrounding areas within Motherwell including 15 Coega IDZ (Industrial Development Zone) customers.

The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality held an emergency JOC meeting, to trigger swift action to circumvent the impact of the explosion and get into the bottom of what might have caused it.

“Following the JOC meeting, a full independent investigation into the causes of the explosion has been launched as there is a suspicion of foul play. Today, the Municipality will be meeting the CDC and affected businesses to develop a solution that will mitigate adverse impact of the constrained electricity supply,” Odendaal said.

The damage to the substation infrastructure is estimated to be more than R40 million.

As a short-term electricity solution, and to circumvent further negative impact on customers and residents, plans are currently underway to back-feed and restore electricity supply from another substation also within the Coega IDZ.

On a medium-term, a line will be constructed to reconnect the affected residents and IDZ customers from a nearby substation, while construction work continues.

Odendaal said a contractor is already on site to restore electricity on the short to medium term. Security is currently being re-inforced to protect critical strategic infrastructure.

“Residents are encouraged to be vigilant and work together with the Municipality and law enforcement agencies to curb vandalism and criminality targeted at Municipal infrastructure that provide basic services to our community,” he said.

He said that the Municipality would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused by the unexpected outage: “We are working hard to restore power to the affected residents and businesses.”

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The Committee received a briefing from the NMB municipality Thursday on its COVID-19 response plan.

It urged the Metro to strike a fair balance between its day to day service delivery responsibility and the implementation of its COVID-19 response plan as they are equally important.

Committee Chairperson Faith Muthambi noted that Nelson Mandela Bay has experienced leadership challenges and has had an acting mayor for the past six months.

She was assured that discussions on the election of the Mayor by the council are due to be finalised by the end of this month.

The municipality also informed the committee that it is owed around R350 million by government departments on property rates and service charges.

Due to COVID -19, the municipality said it forecasts a reduction in revenue collection from Nelson Mandela Bay’s ratepayers and residents, something which will have a negative impact on the delivery of services to the people.

The municipality has applied to the National Treasury to utilise R231 million of the Urban Settlement Development Grant to implement its COVID-19 Response Plan which includes the provision of temporary houses in overcrowded informal settlements areas, chemical toilets, water standpipes and sanitisers and personal protective equipment.

The committee welcomed the announcement by the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, that President Cyril Ramaphosa will delegate a minister or a deputy minister to support each district municipality to ensure that the municipalities get the support they need.

Muthambi, however, commended the municipality on its COVID-19 awareness campaign as its website clearly indicates that the municipality is hard at work in response to the pandemic.

“There is a Covid-19 dedicated webpage where one learns of the Metro’s establishment of the Disaster Management Forum to coordinate the local response to the pandemic. The website provides educational information relating to the use of masks, social distancing, contact tracing and You Tube videos to raise the level of awareness on the pandemic and this is what distinguishes them from other municipalities”, said Muthambi.

(Compiled by Inside Metros staff)

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The United Democratic Movement (UDM)’s Nelson Mandela Bay Mayor Mongameli Bobani has been removed through a motion of no confidence.

UDM leader Bantu Holomisa said the Democratic Alliance (DA) and African National Congress (ANC) had removed Bobani and that his party would not challenge the move.

The Metro’s spokesperson Kupido Baron said: “I can confirm that the executive mayor of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, councillor Mongameli Bobani, was voted out today as executive mayor. The council meeting is currently still ongoing.”

The DA’s Athol Trollip said now that Bobani had been removed “hopefully we can start putting the people of this city first.”

Trollip said there was no cause for joy because Bobani had caused huge damage to the city during his 15 months in office.

Thonono Buyeye is the acting mayor.

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The marathon special council meeting, lasting nine hours, was characterised by screaming and heated exchanges, and failed in its attempt to oust Bobani.

Council speaker Buyelwa Mafaya reportedly walked out of the council while opposition parties were crying foul during the presentation of a second legal opinion on a better route to follow in order to manage the feisty meeting.

The meeting, which started with a 30 minute adjournment of as soon as it began set the tone for more breaks, loud exchanges and several walkouts from the chamber.

By Monday afternoon, Council had not discussed the first of it’s only two agenda items – the motion of no confidence in the mayor and the appointment of section 56 manager.

The chaotic session began with the EFF pushing to get the motion of no confidence to be heard first.

After lengthy and heated exchanges, speaker Mafaya sought legal advice to make a decision on what sequence should be used to proceed with the meeting.

Democratic Alliance caucus leader Athol Trollip called the meeting a miscarriage of the intended purpose to remove Bobani.

“Speaker, earlier you talked about the birth of triplets in this council meeting – but all the meeting has produced is a miscarriage,” said Trollip.

Lulamile Moolman, special adviser to Deputy Mayor Thsonono Buyeye of the African Independent Congress (AIC), claimed the AIC had retracted its support for the no-confidence motion because death threats had been levelled against Buyeye and his family.

“We had to make the decision based on the fact that death is permanent, but council would have continued and people would eventually forget that a life had been lost in efforts to fight against a corrupt clique,” Moolman said.

“Personal agendas were used to defend Bobani, none of what happened today was in the interest of the city.”

Meanwhile, the DA’s Eastern Cape leader, Nqaba Bhanga, said he would support the move to put Nelson Mandela Bay under section 139(a), which means it will be put under administration.

“We will go to court and also make sure that the City is put under administration,” he said.

And the man at the centre of it all, mayor Bobani, chose to direct his comments at the DA.

“They have lost many leaders. They lost Mashaba, they lost Maimane, they even lost Trollip. I was surprised when he spoke in this council today because he has resigned from the leadership positions of the DA.”

“They have lost before, they will lose again, again and again, until 2021 when they will eventually vanish,” added Bobani.

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