I recently had the privilege of attending a course on the tools of urban planning hosted by the French Development Agency in Marseille. We spent the time exploring large parts of the city and the complexities of contemporary urbanism in this Mediterranean city of 1.6m people, a comparable size to Nelson Mandela Bay.

2018/2019 has been on all accounts a major milestone and turnaround year for the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM) owned entity, the Mandela Bay Development Agency (MBDA). The financial year which started on July 1st in 2018 and ended on June 30th, 2019, the period marked the consolidation and implementation of key strategic interventions that the Board had set out to achieve, it is the culmination of two years of intense refocusing.

Section 152 of the Constitution requires municipalities to promote “social and economic development”, “a safe and healthy environment” and focus on the basic needs of communities. They should also participate in the programmes of the other spheres of government. Although the Constitution was adopted in 1996, the current local government system was established with the December 2000 municipal elections; the framework for which arises out of the 1998 White Paper on Local Government. This White Paper gave rise to most of the laws pertaining to municipalities, including the Municipal Structures Act of 1998 and the Municipal Systems Act of 2000, both of which amplify the Constitutional powers and functions of municipalities. When read together, the concepts of functional integration and human development permeate throughout.

The word Mandarin has its origins in Chinese administration as someone who is a “scholarly bureaucrat”, one who serves the public through knowledge. Peter Frankopan explains in “The Silk Roads” there is good reason why the cultures, cities and people who live along the Silk Roads developed and advanced. As they traded and exchanged ideas, they learnt and borrowed from each other, stimulating further advances in philosophy, the sciences, language and religion. Progress was essential, as one of the rulers of the kingdom of Zhao in north-eastern China at one extremity of Asia more than 2,000 years ago knew all too well. “A talent for following the ways of yesterday” … is not sufficient to improve the world of today.”

Zinatul Islam mosque sits in the heart of District 6 (D6). The 100-year old mosque is a magnet for the historic D6 communities, returning residents, new residents and worshippers from the surrounding commercial areas. Recently, a resident lodged a complaint about the call to prayer delivered via the loudspeakers located in the minaret. Accepting the complaint was like accepting the complaints of residents in rural gated estates complaining about flies and manure smells wafting over from the neighbouring farms. Or residents of golf estates complaining about golf balls hitting their greens-facing windows. Or neighbours of Rastafarians complaining of aromatic assaults.