The Patriotic Alliance has formally withdrawn from the DA-led coalition government in Nelson Mandela Bay.
This was announced in a letter from PA national leader, Gayton McKenzie, to the Executive Mayor, Athol Trollip on Thursday afternoon.
In the letter Mckenzie said that the agreement they had was very clear, "that the Patriotic Alliance would only enter into a coalition with the Democratic Alliance when the position of Deputy Mayor is made available for PA occupancy."
"The Patriotic Alliance Party Leader noted that at the point of discussion this position was not vacant and stated outright that the PA councillor would assist the DA to bring back stabilisation to the Metro by assisting with the removal of the alleged corrupt then current Deputy Mayor," said McKenzie.
"The realisation that the promises made to voters by the Democratic Alliance will never come to pass in this young coalition agreement. It thus leaves the Patriotic Alliance with no choice but to withdraw, as we cannot support a party that that will never deliver on the mandate to service and serve its people and the constituents of Nelson Mandela Bay.
The withdrawal is with immediate effect," he said.
Meanwhile, PA councillor in Nelson Mandela Bay, Marlon Daniels, who is still acting Mayoral Committee Member for Public Health, the position formerly held by Bobani, said if he is removed from the mayoral committee, he would have no choice but to cross the floor.
The withdrawal of the Patriotic Alliance from the Nelson Mandela Bay coalition will seriously affect the balance of power in Council, which up until now, was a hung Council.
"Well, it (Council) has now been reduced to 59. Remember I'm still the MMC. So, the mayor has to remove me as MMC and when the mayor does that then I have no other option but to move over to the opposition," said Daniels.
Meanwhile, Executive Mayor, Athol Trollip, addressed the media about the Council "no-show" which left it with no quorum after the ANC and UDM failed to pitch.
"It's with regret that this Council meeting couldn't take place today because there is important business to be dealt with. That's why we have a municipal Council."
We have a municipal Council that was elected in August 2016, a coalition government was forged and we have a responsiblity to deal with all the issues of government, especially focussing on service delivery," said Trollip.
"At the last Council meeting there was a motion of no confidence where a majority of the Councillors in that Council meeting voted to terminate councillor Bobani's position as Deputy Mayor. We all know that this week there was a court ruling which struck from the record, Part A of the UDM application to have the matter heard as an urgent matter that was struck from the roll with costs."
"Essentially, what we have is that the UDM will start an action to have that decision rescinded retrospectively. That court action could take months to even get to court and months and months, if not year, in court."
"So, we anticipated that there might be a no-show at this Council meeting by the ANC and the UDM because those are the discussions that have been going on. In fact an instruction was issued yesterday by the ANC to its members "not to wake and go to Council". So, we anticipated that we would not have a quorum and as it turned out we did not have a quorum. So, no we are back to work, the Speaker will set another date and hopefully we'll get enough people to come to Council."
"But, there's an interesting Constitutional Court ruling that says councillors cannot say away from Council with no good reason, and if they do, there are consequences. There's provision that if you miss three consecutive meetings without an apology or reason, you can lose your position. But, if you stay away from a Council meeting to prevent a government from taking decisions," he said.
The ANC also held its own media briefing denying that their absence was a show of support for Bobani.
ANC caucus leader, Bicks Ndoni, said the decision to boycott was because the DA did not respect decisions made in council, making it difficult to work with them.
"The Council is the supreme policy-making body and no one, amongst the 120 councillor are above the Council. When we decide, that decision must be respected. What they do, we decide there as Councillors and after that meeting they change decisions. They don't respect the outcome of our Council meetings," said Ndoni.
(Image: NMB City Hall)
