Nelson Mandela Bay recently received the dishonour of being ranked the third most violent city in the world, with a murder rate climbing into the triple digits – a first for any South African city ranked.
The city made the shocking climb on the annual ranking compiled by the Mexican Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice in association with the Mexican Commission on Human Rights.
This on the back of the Nelson Mandela Bay murder rate surging to a record 119.8 per 100 000 citizens in 2025. Puerto Principe in Haiti leads the pack with 197.43 murders per 100 000 citizens followed by Bebhayo, Ecuador with 166.02 murders per 100 000 citizens.
How Do We Turn That Around?
For many years Port Elizabeth was known as; “The Friendly City”, “the Windy City”, “The Family Friendly Destination”.
Then we moved on to being; “The Ghost on the Coast” with many residents saying; “Will the last one to leave PE please turn off the lights!” And yet, through all this, we prevailed, together.
All through these dark times of political infighting and directionless City ‘Leaders’ we have clung to one small belief:
We no longer attract huge events, the Springboks throw us scraps, Bafana Bafana are nowhere to be seen, Ironman is teetering on the edge, business is jittery, our automotive industry is experiencing unprecedented challenges, our infrastructure is failing, our city is a mess and yet we still believe that we WILL prevail.
Let’s make no mistake here – we are seeking to accomplish the first task to recovery and that is to PREVAIL, growth and stature will come later.
Why Invest in Gqeberha?
- Pros: Strategic Location and Gateway Status, Steady Sector Growth, Infrastructure and Development Support, Industrial Foundation, Climate and Natural Assets, Incentives for Sustainability
- Cons: Beachfront Safety and Vandalism, Public Infrastructure Reliability, Skills Gap, Socio-Economic Instability, Management and Policy Implementation.
How do We Turn it all Around?
For far too lomg we have relied on ‘government’ to enable tourism, events and other large movements of tourism – like cruise ships – to advertise, finance and manage.
For far too long we have relied on money and resources from government to market our city.
We have since found out that the old axiom of “Building your house on another man’s land” still holds true. If that other man changes allegiance or loses a dynamic player then a very large swathe of tourism products suffer.
We do not want or need Nelson Mandela Bay’s payoff line to become; “Will the last one to leave the city please cover the graves?”
So here is the Bottom Line:
We have built this resource – MyGQ.co.za – MyGQ positions itself as a tourism hub and was founded on a collaborative model. We believe that when local accommodation, transport, tour, and hospitality operators unite under a single banner, the entire local economy lifts. We want every operator in the Nelson Mandela Bay region to look at this platform and feel, “This belongs to us.”
So, all we need to do as a first step is to market Gqeberha in preference to to Nelson Mandela Bay – until the dust has settled around Nelson Mandela Bay being in the Top Three Murder Capital of the World.
Because we want to remove all financial barriers for local tourism, we don’t directly monetize the MyGQ Tourism Hub through commissions or expensive paywalls.
Everything for our tourism partners on MyGQ is free.
After all:
- When the City prospers the incentive to do crime is lessened
- When the City prospers we ALL prosper, and
- Tourism needs to now step up and become that saviour.
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