No more 'expensive' cars for Nelson Mandela Bay officials: Trollip

Just days after announcing that councillors and officials at the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality will now be flying economy class, Executive Mayor, Athol Trollip, on Wednesday followed it up with an announcement that he was prohibiting the purchase of expensive vehicles.

"The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality will no longer procure expensive luxury vehicles. Money that might have been spent on costly luxury motorcars will now be spent on improving service delivery," said Trollip.

"After this new government took office, there was a proposal to procure an Audi Q5 for the Deputy Executive Mayor, as the existing vehicle is no longer serviceable. After considering the acquisition of this vehicle, I decided to amend the order to a more affordable vehicle, a VW Tiguan, which is not only produced locally, but comes at almost half the price."

He said that keeping in line with his administration's efforts to save R100 million in 100 days, the Mayoral vehicle remains fully sponsored by VW South Africa, "for which sponsorship we are extremely grateful to VWSA - one of our biggest supporters".

"The Speaker’s municipal vehicle is currently a second-hand Toyota Fortuner; all members of my Mayoral Committee and other Councillors use their personal vehicles.

"Every cent of money saved through cost-cutting will be redirected towards getting this Metro moving forward by improving service delivery and growing the economy to create jobs," he added.

"We remain committed to change in Nelson Mandela Bay by ensuring that the people of this Metro come first."