POLL | Will the new Nelson Mandela Bay coalition be a success?

A change of leadership in Nelson Mandela Bay has sparked debate, with some believing a new broom will sweep clean and others predicting the fragile coalition keeping it in place is bound to fail.

The DA's Retief Odendaal was elected as the new mayor of the metro on Thursday morning by one vote over the ANC’s Wandisile Jikeka.

He takes over from the ANC's Eugene Johnson, who was voted out on Wednesday, and will lead a multiparty coalition.

In July, seven opposition parties — the DA, ACDP, African Independent Congress, Abantu Integrity Movement, FF Plus, PAC and UDM — agreed to form a coalition in the metro and remove Johnson.

“This multiparty coalition seeks to restore stability, root out corruption and improve service delivery,” the parties said at the time.

While some welcomed the new coalition, anticipating its success, others said it had too many moving parts to work.

The coalition had previously said there was an urgent need for change to improve basic service delivery for residents, and acknowledged the tough road ahead.

“Coalitions are never easy. It is certainly important for all of us to learn the lessons from past attempts so we can apply better measures for future coalitions.”

According to HeraldLIVE, Odendaal said disorder seen in council during the election, which included a ballot box being thrown around, must never happen again.

“We need to fix the council to fix the administration. We need to work together across the party spectrum. People have had enough of partisan politics.”

“My plea to all councillors and the people of Nelson Mandela Bay is that I will try to fix this council and administration so we can get the city working again.”

TimesLIVE

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