MBDA board packed with heavyweights

Council agrees on new members to lead way

SEASONED heavyweights in business, tourism and education are among the crop of Port Elizabeth men and women appointed to take charge of the city’s prized entity, the Mandela Bay Development Agency.

Deputy mayor Bicks Ndoni said about the appointed board members yesterday: “These are men and women of note who have what it takes to take the MBDA forward.”

The 11 board members unanimously approved by the Nelson Mandela Bay council yesterday include Mantis founder and chairman Adrian Gardiner, NMMU vice-chancellor Derrick Swartz and Port Elizabeth harbour manager Rajesh Dana.

The new board will be in charge of a number of major, game-changing projects that are set to alter the face of the Bay.

It will be their responsibility to recruit a chief executive for the entity to take projects worth hundreds of millions of rands forward.

The major projects will create thousands of jobs and boost tourism in the city.

The other approved board members are Izingwe Properties chief executive Mputumi “Phil” Goduka, Cities Network chief executive Sithole Mbanga, Eastern Cape Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism head Bongani Gxilishe, former Bay mayoral committee councillor Marsala Odayar, and former board members Kenny Govender and Khulile Nzo.

The only two women who made the cut are engineering and marketing guru Nomhle Tys and former board member Rojie Kisten.

A third woman, administrator Pam Yako, withdrew her nomination on Wednesday.

The 11 will join four other board members – Advocate Luvuyo Bono and businessmen Motse Mfuleni, Lucky Gosani and Samkelo Dlulane – who are locked in a legal dispute with the municipality over its decision to fire them. The four were granted an interim interdict by the Port Elizabeth High Court on Tuesday.

It prevented the municipality from replacing them until the outcome of their full court action, which has to be instituted before May 10.

They are challenging the city’s decision earlier this month to dissolve the previous board, saying in court papers that it had been done because the board refused to renew former MBDA chief executive Pierre Voges’ contract despite repeated requests from municipal bosses to do so.

Acting city manager Johann Mettler confirmed yesterday that the municipality’s legal team was in discussions with the representatives of the four to possibly settle the matter out of court.

Mettler refused to comment on whether or not the municipality had agreed to pay their legal costs, saying a confidentiality agreement had been signed by all parties.

Meanwhile, Mettler said in a report to the council yesterday that the previous board had never been approved by the council and it had thus been decided to remove them and start the process of calling for nominations for a new board.

Mettler said 29 people had responded to the expressions of interest and their names had been submitted to his office.

Of these, 10 – later tweaked to 11 – were deemed the most suitable in line with their experience and skill sets.

Some of the key MBDA projects in the pipeline are the Baakens Valley precinct development, the redevelopment of Telkom Park land, and the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium management contract and precinct upgrade.

Another is the much-needed upgrade of Port Elizabeth’s beleaguered Bayworld oceanarium.

The MBDA has an unblemished financial history, having received a number of accolades and clean audit reports from the auditor-general.