Bobani’s conduct a puzzle
MONGAMELI Bobani is loud, at times vexatious and unpredictable, but he is no fool. One of the longest serving councillors in Nelson Mandela Bay, the local UDM leader raised his profile two years ago when he led a campaign that defeated the ANC in a by-election in its historical stronghold of Ward 30.
There is an interesting legend going around about how the UDM won that ward, in particular how its expensive campaign was funded. But more on that later. Whatever you think of him though, about 14 500 people voted for him last year, earning his party two seats in council and making him a central figure in the DA-led coalition government.
As deputy mayor, he is the second most powerful politician running the metro – at least on paper.
If those close to him are to be believed, five months into office, he had begun to feel increasingly sidelined and undermined by mayor Athol Trollip.
Taunting him even more was the ANC and others who had publicly and privately called him a sellout.
How dare he continue to side with a white man whose decision to cut off people’s electricity meters shows he has no clue of the struggles faced by the black majority? they asked.
And so, last week, the tensions between Bobani and Trollip boiled over.
The smokescreen was a disagreement about the appointment of city manager Johann Mettler as well as the extension of senior acting official Vuyo Zitumane’s contract.
Following what insiders said was a shouting match between Trollip and Bobani, the deputy mayor is said to have stormed out of a caucus meeting last week.
He would later not show up for council, leaving Trollip red-faced and the business of the day put on the back burner.
Perhaps Bobani did so to remind Trollip that regardless of the political hierarchy, theirs is a mutually beneficial partnership.
Perhaps he was driving home the point that he is not there to simply make up the numbers.
The mayor would do well to remember that without the UDM, his hold on power is only possible if he wins favour with other opposition parties who are known to be far more hostile to the DA than the UDM.
Regardless, Bobani’s reasons for wanting Mettler and Zitumane gone are curious.
It is plausible that although he was part of the interview panel for Mettler’s position, he is in retrospect genuinely concerned about some procedural issues with regard to their employment in the municipality.
But as skillfully argued by political analyst Mcebisi Ndletyana in this newspaper yesterday, Bobani’s history on such matters compels us to question his motives.
His dubious crusade against former city manager Lindiwe MsenganaNdlela – which he eventually lost in court – is a case in point.
But even more concerning for me is the prevailing, yet unproven, narrative around the deputy mayor in this city’s political circles.
His critics, which include officials, ANC leaders and some in the DA, accuse him of benefiting handsomely from the dubious deals that went down during the recent era of looting in the metro.
For example, they allege that through some crafty, multi-party wheeling and dealing, money siphoned from the failed bus system, went on to fund his Ward 30 campaign in 2015.
Bobani has previously rejected this, saying the campaign was funded by UDM members who sold their cows, goats and chickens to support his vision financially.
But the snitches go even further to claim that this was orchestrated by one ANC faction to sabotage another at the height of the ANC’s self-destruction. Sounds absurd, right? It possibly is, especially because there is not – as far as we know – an ounce of evidence presented to back up such allegations.
The thing is, though, perceptions are everything in politics. These allegations are not new. They predate the coalition government. And at times, they were fuelled by Bobani’s own past behaviour in council.
Not only on the Msengana-Ndlela issue, but how he voted on certain council matters.
For example, when it emerged back in 2014 that a number of companies owned by the same local businessman had benefited from the failed bus system, Bobani seemed less concerned about whether the contracts were awarded lawfully.
Instead, he joined the ANC’s chorus, accusing the DA and the media of a racist plot to victimise a black-owned company instead of going after white-owned companies he believed had also unduly benefited from the system.
And then came similar claims of questionable relationships between Bobani and officials who have since been fired or suspended by the municipality.
He has consistently denied that there was anything untoward with regard to these relationships.
In one instance late last year, a colleague of mine spotted him with a municipal official who had recently been suspended, at a fast food restaurant in Walmer. When asked if it was appropriate for a deputy mayor to be meeting a suspended official while her case was still ongoing, Bobani said he had bumped into her and that there was nothing sinister about their meeting.
Fair enough, it would be grossly unjust to suggest that corridor talk by politicians provides reasonable grounds to probe Bobani’s conduct in recent years.
However, the position he now holds and the power he wields make it difficult to dismiss completely such talk as conspiracy theories that deserve no attention.
Especially when the two subjects of his recent contention – Mettler and Zitumane – happen also to hold the proverbial keys to the municipal vault.
Given how potentially damaging this is, both to Bobani’s character and the public in general, we must ask why those who claim to have access to incriminating evidence against the deputy mayor have not exposed it, if indeed such exists?