Mandela Bay residents slam SOMA budget amid service delivery woes
Residents point to critical service delivery challenges such as water and electricity disruptions.
Residents of Nelson Mandela Bay in the Eastern Cape have expressed dissatisfaction with the municipality's decision to allocate R235,000 towards a State of the Metro Address (SOMA) event, held in Despatch on Thursday evening. This marks the first SOMA in the metro in over a decade. Critics argue that funds should be better utilized to address pressing service delivery issues, such as water and electricity outages, and sewage spills.
One resident lamented, "We don’t even have flushing toilets…I don’t know how much they’ve spent on those toilets that are lined up there. We are even robbed in those toilets, but they are willing to take that amount of money and spend it on a gala. Like, what is the common sense in that?"
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