Two ordinary Nelson Mandela Bay Council meetings have failed to get off the ground in the past two weeks.
A scheduled meeting at the Old Wool Exchange building was abandoned last week after an ANC councillor, Lorna Makwethu, was unable to access the venue due to her physical disability.
Makwethu was left sitting at the top of the stairs at the venue due to the lift being broken.
Council took a last-minute decision to postpone the meeting after political parties including the ANC and EFF raised the issue with Council.
Meanwhile, the meeting on Tuesday didn't get underway after chaos erupted at the Joint Operations Centre located at the South End Fire station.
The meeting was changed to a virtual meeting with only a few councillors allowed at Feather Market Hall and at the JOC due to alleged security threats.
Council Chief Whip, Bill Harrington, says EFF and ANC councillors stormed into the building at the South End fire station and prevented some councillors from accessing the building.
Harrington says Good Party Councillor, Lance Troon, was also prevented from leaving the venue.
He says the councillors were requesting a reason why the meeting was to be held in two different venues following the announcement that it would be virtual as well.
Harrington says the new DA-led coalition government plans to meet with opposition party leaders to try and resolve these issues.
Meanwhile, ANC councillor, Wandisile Jikeka, says councillors went to the venues as they could not reach Council Speaker, Gary Van Niekerk.
Jikeka says councillors told the Council Chief Whip that they did not agree to the separation of the venues as the Speaker can mute a councillor while raising a point of order that he doesn't agree with.
He says he isn't aware of any councillor who was prevented from entering or leaving the building.
UDM Metro spokesperson, Yongama Zigebe, says Tuesday's meeting was meant to deal with service delivery related items on the agenda.
Zigebe, who is part of the Mayor Retief Oodendaal's new DA-led coalition, says this could not happen as opposition parties went and staged a 'coup'.
"They are claiming that they want to be in the same place as the Council Speaker because he was going to be at the JOC," said Zigebe.
"Its ironic that the ANC, EFF and Patriotic Alliance would lead such a protest and display such hooliganism and criminality," said Zigebe.
"Because, when the ANC was in government in Nelson Mandela Bay, we had hybrid models where councillors were housed in different venues because of security threats."
