Bay alliance needs EFF – analyst

‘Partnership with DA-led coalition would stabilise city government’

THE Nelson Mandela Bay DA-led coalition must team up with a reliable partner who will make running the metro easier for them, and that would be the EFF. That was the view of political analyst Mcebisi Ndletyana, as he unpacked a possible way forward for the coalition government in the Bay.

With the support of six more councillors the coalition government would find passing budget items and making decisions in council easier, he said.

The coalition comprising COPE, ACDP, UDM and the DA was left in the lurch on Thursday when the Patriotic Alliance pulled out of the co-governance agreement it entered into three months ago.

The coalition has 59 votes in council. The support of the EFF would bring the tally to 65.

A 61-member majority is needed to pass budget items.

Ndletyana said the only way the coalition could continue governing the city in a stable manner was if they joined forces with the EFF.

“They would be able to do a lot of things that they want to do and even if they had problems from other coalition partners it would not matter much because [they] will have the EFF and as long as he [Trollip] maintains that relationship he would be fine,” Ndletyana said.

But EFF provincial coordinator Yazini Tetyana said the party would not attend council meetings until the coalition partners sorted out their difference.

“We have allowed coalition partners [in other metros] to resolve their issues, they [coalition partners in Nelson Mandela Bay ]seem unable to resolve them but we took exception on the fact that the DA is bulldozing its coalition partners,” he said.

Tetyana said the EFF had, on August 24, attended council to support both former deputy Bobani Mongameli and the coalition.

“Our belief is that the mayor is a bully and he doesn’t have the interest of our people in Nelson Mandela Bay, he does not have the interest of black people.”

He said the coalition had so far failed to prioritise black people.

He referred to an attempt by the city to take R13-million set aside for the resurfacing of roads in various wards and redirect it towards the fixing of a stretch of road that forms parts of the Ironman route for the upcoming Ironman 70.3 world championships next year.

Meanwhile, EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu said the EFF leadership would meet on Friday to decide if its councillors would attend council meetings in all DA-led coalition metros.

Last month the party instructed its councillors to stay away from council meetings.

Shivambu, however, met Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Athol Trollip yesterday, saying the party needed to establish what exactly was happening in the Bay.

“We got the information we needed, we are going to table it with the leadership and we will take a decision on whether we will participate in council,” he said.

Shivambu said a report on the political situation in Nelson Mandela Bay would be tabled on Friday.

He was scheduled to address the EFF Nelson Mandela Regional Assembly at the Veeplaas Hall yesterday, but had not arrived a couple of hours after the event was due to begin.