The Mandela Bay Development Agency (MBDA) is an entity of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM), founded in 2003 and is overseen by a Council appointed independent Board of Directors. Since inception, as one of first agencies to be established nationally, the MBDA has had to navigate unchartered waters and in many instances, through unconventional methods, discovered new ways and approaches to socio-economic development. All that experience would come to bear in navigating the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

I first came across Charles Lindblom’s concept of “muddling through” in public policy and decisions in 1988 while studying urban and regional planning. Muddling through has come into vogue now that the world and its economy have been thrown into turmoil. According to this theory, evolutionary, rather than revolutionary approaches to development, especially economic development is the preferred approach. Posited in 1959 at the heyday of modernism when states controlled most levers of power, it argues that no single dominant group controls society.

12 June 2020, the Mandela Bay Development Agency (MBDA), an entity of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality teamed up with the Nelson Mandela University’s Visual Arts Department to deliver the first batch of a uniquely designed mask to Cape Racife School in Summerstrand.

Thursday, 11 June 2020, the Mandela Bay Development Agency, an entity of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality and operators of the Uitenhage based Science and Technology Centre, today presented Khulile Primary School with nearly 200 bottled sanitizers and 150 cloth face masks.

As we enter this Youth Month, a partnership between the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality; independent arts organizations; and emerging local artists, supported by the Mandela Bay Development Agency (MBDA) are putting together a three (3) day Youth Festival. The Festival is set to take place during this difficult time underscored by a developing global pandemic, COVID-19. Which has set precedent for a shift in practices and world order from the norm to virtual access and exchanges.