Drama as DA loses again

EJECTED: REPLACEMENT COUNCILLOR

There was chaos at a Nelson Mandela Bay Metro council meeting yesterday after Democratic Alliance (DA) councillors objected to its new member Lutho Sokudela being ejected.

The drama unfolded shortly after city manager Johan Mettler cited the recent Port Elizabeth High Court judgment on Victor Manyati’s DA membership.

He said the judgment was clear in that it stated that Manyati would remain on as a councillor until the DA’s disciplinary processes against him were finalised.

Last month, Manyati abstained from a vote which led to the ousting of former council speaker Jonathan Lawack of the DA. Subsequent to Lawack’s ousting, mayor Athol Trollip was voted from office and Mongameli Bobani of the United Democratic Movement was elected unanimously as the new executive mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay Metro.

During heated scenes yesterday, the DA’s Werner Senekal said the processes against Manyati were finalised and according to the party, he was no longer a councillor. “It boggles my mind as to what he [Manyati] is doing here.”

Speaker Buyelwa Mafaya then indicated that new DA recruit Lutho Sokudela needed to leave the chamber.

A shouting match ensued with DA councillors forming a chain around Sokudela. They were adamant that their new councillor would not leave chambers.

Mafaya then ordered municipal security to remove Sokudela.

Metro police officers and security entered chambers and a scuffle ensued.

The DA and its coalition partners, Congress of the People and the African Christian Democratic Party, went to the high court last week in a bid to have the court review or declare unlawful the decisions taken at last month’s council meeting at which Trollip was ousted, but they lost the application.