As adopted by the Founding Convention on the 22 October 2020 at the South End Museum, Nelson Mandela Bay, Republic of South Africa
1. Preamble:
The Abantu Integrity Movement (AIM) is a people’s movement that arises both from the political and administrative crisis that has besieged the functioning of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro, and from its untapped human and natural potential.
AIM’s goal is to break the ongoing political impasse and resultant dysfunctionality of the metro by offering residents a pragmatic and integrity-grounded alternative to the existing political choices.
AIM recognises that the metro has the potential of becoming a lifestyle place of choice amongst similar sized cities around the globe.
AIM acknowledges that every metro or town within South Africa is faced with common structural challenges that arise from our minor positioning within the global economy, the apartheid and colonial legacies of inequality and injustice and more recently years of rampant corruption and non-delivery of services to residents, and against a background of a planetary eco-system which is in crisis.
AIM believes that the residents of this metro are in a particularly disadvantaged position as compared to the other seven metros in the country due to local political leadership across the spectrum that is either corrupt, incapable, or locked into a destructive mode of engagement. The result is a rapidly collapsing municipal infrastructure and arising societal ills that consider crime commonplace, jobs a privilege, littered streets the norm and offers little prospect of growth and development to the youth.
Historically the metro of Nelson Mandela Bay has always been at the forefront of change in South Africa, we believe it has the potential to lead a renewal of our nation again.
AIM has been founded by a diverse collection of experienced individuals, committed to a pragmatic program of action, and bounded by common love of the metro and its people, AIM’s purpose is to get Nelson Mandela Bay working. It is not beholden to any national power games and is rather focused on leveraging the mandate given by its members and voters in pursuit of implementing a local government of unity and a best-fit metro administration.
