NMB Mayor describes Colchester as a historically forgotten area of Eastern Cape

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The Executive Mayor of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro, Gary van Niekerk, has described the Colchester area, near Gqeberha, Eastern Cape, as a historically forgotten place.

Van Niekerk led a clean-up campaign, commemorating Mandela Month.

A number of challenges, ranging from a lack of ablution facilities to neglected and vandalised sports facilities, have been identified.

The municipality says a number of projects are now in place to bring this town closer to the municipality’s attention.

The residents of this small town say they live an isolated life. They lack access to electricity, decent sanitation facilities, and employment. The area does not even have an early childhood development centre, which, according to residents, poses a risk to children. They are calling for the municipality to meet their most basic human rights.”

Residents’ concern

A resident says, “We do not have toilets; sometimes these toilets will fill up, and when they do, neighbours will come to your house to relieve themselves. So we must lock our toilets. We need electricity; we have newborn babies that we must keep warm, and we must keep checking throughout the night. How do we do that if we rely on candles? We do not have jobs, there was a creche that we used to work for, but that too closed down. Young children are now roaming the streets.”

The Mayor has admitted that this is indeed a forgotten area. Colchester has been a neglected area; we went around and could not believe the state of the graves. But we are paying close attention to it.

The Nelson Mandela Bay municipality (NMB) dedicated its 67 minutes for Mandela Day to cleaning and painting a sports field in Colchester. A number of projects have now been established to meet the needs of these residents. The NMB Mayor explains

“We’ve already started with the most basic, like ensuring that these residents have ablution facilities. We went to the graveyard and could not believe the amount of grass that had grown. We trimmed, and there is a lot we have yet to do. This government does not just make promises. We are set on making things happen.”

The residents have in the past held various protests over service delivery issues. They are also urging the municipality to ensure an adequate water supply.