THE political battle to win the troubled Nelson Mandela Bay is heating up.
On Monday morning, the DA brought in its heavyweights to Port Elizabeth for a consultative conference at Bayworld Conference Centre.
The purpose of the gathering was to position the party on the winning path and also to give members an opportunity to tell their leaders what they should do. More than 400 DA members attended the conference along with Western Cape Premier Helen Zille and Cape Town metro mayor Patricia de Lille.
Zille said: “Creating good government is not a sexy thing or a nice task.
“To be successful, you have to create enemies within the metro. When we took Cape Town, it was a chaotic situation and people weren’t paying their service charges.
“The first thing we did was to fire all the managers without skills. Then we sent out service charges bills to 300 000 people who weren’t paying their bills.
“We also disconnected the water and electricity of rich people who weren’t paying services.
“We were criticised, but 230 000 people started paying services and we generated enough money. As I am speaking, 90% of people in Western Cape pay their service charges.’’
Zizipho Mbalane (19) of Emabheleni location in Mthatha said: “I am happy to be here. I have come to have my input.
“I’m happy with the clean government of the DA and I hope they are going to apply it here as well.”
