The United Democratic Movement has given the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality until the 8th of September to file opposing papers in response to an urgent application to challenge the decision to oust the deputy mayor
The municipality is among the 131 respondents cited on the urgent interdict filed by the former deputy mayor, Mongameli Bobani, at the Port Elizabeth High Court on Thursday.
Bobani was voted out of his position as deputy mayor in a Council meeting last week after the Patriotic Alliance brought a motion of no confidence in him.
The civil application is to restrain the municipality from implementing the decision taken in council and to reinstate Bobani as deputy mayor.
UDM lawyer Lionel Trichart said they will reply to opposing papers on the 14th of September.
Bobani said that each Nelson Mandela Bay councillor is included as a respondent in the matter.
ANC caucus leader in the Metro, Bicks Ndoni was at the High Court to support Bobani.
Ndoni said he believed that Bobani's ouster was illegal.
"We are also going to be named as the eighth correspondent in the affidavit, so we have to give evidence that we were part of the council meeting and we must also be able to state our position as different parties. All parties that were in that meeting must be able to state their positions - that's what the lawyers want to do. Parties must come in and classify whether they believe what happened was right or wrong," he said.
The matter is expected to be argued in court on the 19th of September.
In an emotive and lengthy statement posted on the UDM website on Thursday afternoon, UDM leader Bantu Holomisa wrote that he trusts the High Court will separate fact from fiction and that the court will see through the DA’s politicking and identify its smear campaign against Bobani and the UDM.
The Democratic Alliance announce at Bobani's ouster last week, that a new deputy Mayor would be appointed at the next Council meeting which will be sometime in September.