Agreement between DA and ANC runs aground
NOMAZIMA NKOSI and MICHAEL KIMBERLEY
The ANC, EFF, Patriotic Alliance and the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) met at the Noninzi Luzipho Building to discuss the state of Nelson Mandela Bay on Tuesday.
Notably absent from the coalition meeting was the UDM and the United Front.
In the meeting the parties decided that mayor Mongameli Bobani must go. Three insiders from different parties said provincial leaders of the ANC and DA had begun talks on Bobani’s removal and the city’s governance thereafter.
The DA had an offer for the ANC which was to be discussed on Tuesday.
Hours before the two parties met on Tuesday, news broke that the United Front was set on protecting Bobani.
Blood would be spilled if there were any attempts to remove the mayor, the UF said.
Shortly after, the second domino fell – the EFF withdrew its promised vote against the mayor, saying his removal could open the door for a DA mayor.
Regardless, with a combined council majority, the ANC and the DA met later on Tuesday and the DA provincial leader Nqaba Bhanga tabled their offer. The DA was willing to vote Bobani out and vote the ANC back into city hall. Thereafter the ANC could pick whoever it liked as a coalition partner. However, the DA would not be part of a governing coalition.
Instead, the party wanted the ANC to revise the metro’s system to ensure that DA councillors, rather than mayoral committee members, served as committee chairs.
The DA opted to remain on the opposition benches and keep the ANC accountable until the 2021 election, Bhanga said.
Later that evening ANC regional leaders took the offer to provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi, who accepted it.
But other ANC structures were not as convinced.
Its alliance partners were skeptical of the DA’s intentions of playing an oversight role.
Getting into bed with the DA would have been political suicide for the ANC, SACP regional spokesperson Lazola Pukwana later said in a statement.
And then came Wednesday evening.
At Daku Hall, the regional leaders met with ANC branches where the decision to remove Bobani was discussed.
Insiders described that meeting as fully charged, hostile and an ugly environment.
Some said branch members appeared not to understand what Bobani had done wrong that necessitated his removal.
They also were against what they believed was the ANC’s intention to get into a coalition government with the DA.
Some believed this was a move by their leaders to sell out the so-called black caucus and jump into bed with an ideological rival. Regional leaders in the meeting are said to have tried to articulate that the arrangement with the DA was not a co-governing agreement, but a collaboration limited only to voting Bobani out and getting the ANC back into power. But by then it was too late. A social media post, which they described as fake, had already been circulating, claiming Nceba Faku was the proposed candidate for mayor, with the DA’s Athol Trollip as deputy.
With some SMME leaders in Wednesday’s meeting – whom Bobani had promised R500m worth of work – tensions rose and it was decided that Thursday’s council sitting should be postponed.
Even more than security concerns at the council venue, regional leaders were increasingly worried about the potential vulnerability of councillors after the meeting, should they vote Bobani out.
Shortly before 6am on Thursday, speaker Buyelwa Mafaya texted councillors cancelling the meeting, citing security concerns.