Nelson Mandela Bay: A rubbish budget for one of the ‘dirtiest cities in the world’

The budget includes a refuse tariff increase of 6.5%, effective from 1 July 2026. Households and businesses across Gqeberha, Kariega and Despatch will pay more on their monthly accounts for waste collection. What they will not receive in return is a better service.

Dr Claire Botha is a health economist and policy analyst with a focus on public sector policy analysis, health financing and economics, costing and resource allocation. Her work spans more than 15 years, in diverse sectors such as government, nongovernmental, higher education and research management.

Rubbish piles have ceased to be mere eyesores in the Nelson Mandela Bay; they are now treated as landmarks. Ask anyone in Bloemendal, a suburb in the Northern Areas of Gqeberha, to point you to the local plumber, the one who has been fixing geysers and burst pipes for 20 years, and nobody will give you a street name or house number.

A finger points instead: “Jy kan hom kry next to daai groot rubbish dump.” The dump has become the map. Directions are now measured in proximity to refuse, “two piles down from the corner”, “net voor die taxi rank se rubbish pile”.

The heap doesn’t just collect waste. It collects identities, turning discarded refuse into the only coordinates that matter. In this new geography of neglect, the rubbish no longer marks what has been thrown away. It marks where people live, work and wait.

And so, the city undergoes a grim rebranding. Gqeberha, once proudly the Windy City, where the cool breeze off Algoa Bay promised freshness, now carries a crueller label: one of the dirtiest cities in the world, a stain worn by the struggling Nelson Mandela Bay Metro.

As the 2026/27 budget awaits final approval, residents are left asking one desperate question: can this budget offer any real prospect of improved waste collection, or will the metro’s reputation as one of the dirtiest cities in South Africa be cemented for another year? The budget answers that question before anyone has even asked it.

If Nelson Mandela Bay’s 2026/27 waste management budget is any measure of intent, residents have their answer: do not expect improvement. The figures tabled before council tell a story no service delivery pledge can contradict.

When a municipality raises the tariff for a service while simultaneously cutting the budget to deliver it, ratepayers are entitled to ask where the money is going. The answer, largely, is salaries and debt servicing – not trucks, not infrastructure, not enforcement.

The waste management operating budget for 2026/27 has been set at R626,023,000. Against the curre