DA blames ANC in-fighting for failed Council meeting

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The Nelson Mandela Bay Council failed to meet on Thursday because it could not reach a quorum.

Metro Minute reports that speaker Maria Hermans, had no alternative but to adjourn proceedings when it became apparent that there would be no quorum even though several ANC councillors had been in and out of the council chamber.

DA caucus leader in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Leon de Villiers, blamed Thursday's events on the ongoing infighting in the ANC between mayor Zanoxolo Wayile and former mayor and ANC regional chairperson, Nceba Faku.

"You can clearly see what the ex-mayor Faku is attempting to do. He wants to embarrass the current mayor especially since Derek Hanekom is the Metro to help sort out the rift so the more he can embarrass the mayor while that process is taking place I guess he will ultimately achieve what he is trying to achieve," said De Villiers.

He says there were several crucial items on the agenda for the meeting.

These include the Integrated Bus Transport System, the hosting of the Afcon tournament (in 2013), the lack of productivity in the traffic department and the extension of the acting municipal managers contract.

This week the ANC in Nelson Mandela Bay issues a stern warning to the mayor after it emerged that a contract had been awarded to a Cape Town company for the Integrated Bus Transport System.

In a statement the ANC's Nelson Mandela Bay regional executive said it "has noted and is noting some of the reports which have recently surfaced on the Integrated Public Transport System (IPTS) for the Nelson Mandela Metro area with great shock and concern."

"The ANC Nelson Mandela Region has noted a number of "decisions" of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM) in this regard and we would be seriously remiss in our duties if we did not raise our extreme shock and concern with some of the so-called "decisions" taken by the NMBM," said regional secretary Zandisile Qupe.

"The African National Congress is indeed deeply concerned by gross violation of some of our strategic principles such as people centred and people's driven service delivery. We will ensure that this is implemented in full view of our people and having participated," Qupe said.