By Anita Dangazele
- Mayor Babalwa Lobishe presented Nelson Mandela Bay’s 2025/2026 mid-year budget report to council on Thursday showing the municipality’s worsening financial crisis.
- The municipality’s debtors collection rate sits at 71.6%, below the 75% target, while electricity losses reached R840-million in November alone.
Nelson Mandela Bay municipality has enough money to keep running for just 59 days. This is the worst financial position the city has been in for five years.
The details came out in the 2025/2026 mid-year budget and performance report. Mayor Babalwa Lobishe presented the report to council on Thursday.
The city is struggling to collect money owed to it. The debtors’ collection rate sits at 71.6%, below the 75% target.
Electricity losses are hitting the budget hard. By November, losses reached 447 million kilowatt hours, equal to R840-million.
Performance scores were low. The municipality scored 16.67% for basic service delivery, zero for municipal transformation, 33.33% for good governance and 31.26% for financial viability.
Democratic Alliance councillor Brendon Pegram called the results a disgrace. He said overdue debt grew by R3.2-billion in six months. Cash investments dropped to R3.45-billion, the lowest in five years.
Pegram said electricity losses of R1.5-billion were recorded in one year. He described the electricity department as bankrupt. He accused the city of trying to hide the scores.
Chief financial officer Jackson Ngcelwane blamed much of the debt problem on the Covid-19 period. He said job losses and social pressures drove debt higher.
Ngcelwane pointed to debt relief programmes, private debt collectors and revenue blitzes as steps taken. He said the collection rate improved to 84.7% by December. The city collected R197-million during a three-day shutdown period.
Ngcelwane said National Treasury’s refusal to approve rollovers of unspent grants had cost the city more than R1.6-billion over 13 years.
Acting city manager Lonwabo Ngoqo said systems were stabilising and service areas like waste removal and electricity response were improving.
Opposition councillors rejected that view and warned the city was sliding deeper into failure.
Pictured above: Nelson Mandela Bay welcome board.
Image source: Supplied
