Second motion against Trollip aborted

Nelson Mandela Bay metro mayor Athol Trollip says opposition party councillors are bent on creating instability in the council in order for it to be placed under administration.

The DA-led council would go to court, if necessary, to thwart opposition attempts to disrupt council meetings in the metro, Trollip said.

A second council meeting, in which a motion of no confidence against the mayor would have been debated, collapsed on Tuesday morning.

The motion was sponsored by the EFF in a bid to punish the DA for not supporting land expropriation without compensation. It was supported by the United Democratic Movement and the ANC.

“If they want to disrupt council, we will take legal action against them. They want it to be out under administration,” Trollip said.

The DA was working on strengthening the coalition to get it “past the vulnerabilities” that it currently faced., he said.

Nelson Mandela Bay is governed by a coalition of the DA, Congress of the People, the African Christian Democratic Party and its newest coalition partner the Patriotic Alliance.

The four parties, however, did not have the 61 seats needed for a majority in the council.

The parties have all together only 60 seats.

The African Independent Congress (AIC) has promised the DA its single vote, a move that could see Trollip survive the no-confidence vote.

However, the AIC is still an official coalition partner of the ANC and had given its vote to the party following the 2016 local government elections.

The AIC merely put its vote behind Trollip in a bid to punish the ANC for not delivering on its promise to move the small town of Matatiele from within the boundaries of the Eastern Cape to KwaZulu-Natal.

Trollip said the opposition parties were expecting the original motion to be debated by the council in the next two weeks.

However, the options were to either table a new motion of no confidence or approach the courts, he said.