NMB Office of the Executive Mayor
The Gqeberha High Court has granted an urgent hearing on the merits of the Section 12 amendment which would see a change in the mayoral executive system in Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB).
This is according to the Metro Executive Mayor, Retief Odendaal who lodged an opposing urgent application together with the Democratic Alliance.
The Eastern Cape Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC, Zolile Williams, signed a notice to scrap the system of governance in the Metro earlier this month.
If this should go ahead, a collective executive with a ward participatory system would take powers away from a mayor and allow a new committee to run the city.
This new committee would be made up of four members from the ANC and DA then one member each from the EFF and Northern Alliance.
However, the NMB Municipality mayor, Odendaal has vowed to fight this move by MEC Williams.
Odendaal says if this process should be implemented as proposed then it would plunge the administration into chaos and paralyse service delivery.
He says the application will consist of two parts-the first being an interim relief to have the amendment of Section 12 amended until the main part of the application is finalised.
Odendaal says part B of the application will challenge the MEC's decision to change the municipality's system of governance.
"We will argue that not only is the MEC’s decision politically motivated, but the reasons he has given for his decision are irrational and have no merit. The ignoring of the declaration of an intergovernmental dispute regarding the amendment will also be argued," he said.
Meanwhile, the DA's Provincial Leader Nqaba Bhanga says the party has decided to join the application by the Municipality.
Bhanga says the ANC is using the MEC to get back into power using the back door.
"This farce must be condemned in the harshest possible terms. This has nothing to do with service delivery and everything to do with a dying organisation desperately trying to cling to power so it can continue to loot state resources," he added.
The first part of the hearing is expected to be heard on the 30th of December.
