Controversial Nelson Mandela Bay Ex-Mayor Bobani Dies

Mongameli Bobani, the controversial former mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay, has died after being admitted to hospital with COVID three weeks ago.

Bantu Holomisa, the leader of the United Democratic Movement, released a statement this evening confirming Bobani’s passing.

Bobani was ousted in a no-confidence debate last December, and the city has sat without a major since then, which has led already deteriorating conditions there to get worse.

At the time, Athol Trollip, a former mayor, said, “In his fifteen months in office, he has been the most destructive mayor this metro has ever seen, and has singlehandedly run the city into the ground.”

According to Trollip at the time, the following happened under Bobani’s watch:

• National Treasury has threatened to withdraw and recall in excess of R3-billion in funds made available since the inception of the IPTS conditional grant allocation, because these funds have been used outside the framework stipulated in the Division of Revenue Act (DoRA).
• The Hawks have raided his mayoral offices twice, which is unprecedented.
  “SMME’s have literally gone to war over a dubious drain cleaning tender, with people losing their lives,” said Trollip.
• Bobani refused to sign the drought declaration for months, while taps across the Metro ran dry and dam levels continued to drop.
• Service delivery in the Metro ground to a halt. The City is dirty, as “refuse is not being collected on a regular basis and illegal dumping is a massive problem.”

South Africa continues to report the highest incidence of Covid cases and deaths in Africa, although cases have been dropping since the peak in July. By September SA was reporting fewer than 15,000 new cases per week, and in the past week there were fewer than 10,500 cases reported (176 new cases per million population). Deaths have fallen from over 1,500 deaths per week at the end of July and beginning of August, to 513 deaths reported in the past week, although it is 55% higher than it was in the previous week.