The Democratic Alliance-led coalition government in Nelson Mandela Bay is hanging in the balance but said on Wednesday it was confident that a motion to remove mayor Athol Trollip and council speaker Jonathan Lawack would not succeed.
The DA, with (57 seats), together with its coalition partners COPE and the African Christian Democratic Party, with one seat each, held a press conference ahead of the vote on Thursday and stressed at length the service delivery successes it claims to have achieved under the leadership of Trollip.
COPE councillor Siyasanga Sijadu told the media briefing that while “Trollip is not everyone’s cup of tea,” they as councillors were not in their positions to drink tea but rather to get on with providing services to the city.
The DA governs in Nelson Mandela Bay after securing 46.7 percent of the vote and 57 seats in the 120-seat council in the local government elections in 2016.
The DA is expected to hold a picket outside Vuyisile Mini Square ahead of the no-confidence debate.
It has also started a petition lobbying residents to support Trollip as the right man for the job.
DA Provincial Leader Nqaba Bhanga, accompanied by the entire mayoral committee team, said on Wednesday that they supported Trollip and that the bid to have their members removed was initiated by power-hungry individuals, namely the Patriotic Alliance’s Marlon Daniels and United Democratic Movement former deputy mayor Mongameli Bobani.
Both Trollip and Lawack were not present at the media briefing and Bhanga said they were instructed not to be.
“It’s not about them, it’s about the bigger project to change South Africa. We have a collective of people who run this government in support of Athol Trollip and Jonathan Lawack. They have provided us with good leadership. Why should we turn our backs on them?”
Earlier this month Daniels and Bobani served notices of motions for the removal of Trollip and Lawack. Subsequent to that council chief whip Werner Senekal filed a motion for the position of deputy mayor to be removed from the city’s administrative structure.
The PA officially withdrew from the DA-led coalition government earlier in September, just three months after joining it. The PA threatened to terminate its agreement with the DA if Daniels was not elected deputy mayor.
At the time Daniels was adamant that he should be nominated for the vacant position of deputy mayor after he brought the ultimately successful motion of no confidence in Bobani.
Daniels has since apologised to Bobani for bringing the motion that led to his removal and said that he was “deceived by Trollip” into believing that Bobani was a corrupt man.
While Bhanga said that they have done their lobbying he would not be drawn into saying which political party was approached.
The Economic Freedom Fighters holds the decisive vote with six seats in the council.
EFF councillor Zilindili Vena said that while their members would attend the council meeting they were still receiving guidance from their national leadership on which way to vote.
Bhanga said: “The leadership of the EFF have good leaders, starting from the president.., and I understand that some of them are non-racialists, even Julius [Malema] is a non-racialist.
Julius understands that what we want to do is build a truly non-racial South Africa. Julius understands this project of running municipalities is bigger than these petty battles.
“He understands that this is about saving South Africa. That’s why in other metros like Tshwane, Johannesburg we are working together with the EFF. We could not have run those municipalities if Julius Malema and the EFF didn’t come out and support us because they understand we must stop ANC corruption.”
The PA, United Front, African Independent Congress, UDM and ANC made their positions clear earlier, on Wednesday stating that they would support a motion to remove Trollip as the city’s mayor.
The ANC railed against the DA on Wednesday, accusing the party of leading a smear campaign against it on social media. The ANC, however, said it would support the motion to oust Trollip.
The ANC occupies 50 seats while the minority parties who intend to vote with them make up five seats in total.
– African News Agency (ANA)
(Additional reporting - Algoa FM)
