Day of chaos
Bobani takes over the mayoral reins while DA prepares for legal fight over ousting of Trollip
While the DA was gearing up for a legal battle over a council decision to oust Athol Trollip as mayor, newly elected Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Mongameli Bobani settled into his new office on Tuesday.
Bobani spun around gleefully in his new chair and held his first mayoral caucus meeting in the office.
“This is a very nice chair,” he said at about 3pm, after the office had been cleared of all traces of Trollip.
But as Bobani celebrated, there was confusion over who, in fact, was mayor, with both Trollip and Bobani adamant that they were.
The Port Elizabeth City Hall was a hive of activity as the ANC and UDM celebrated with their supporters while the DA and its coalition partners – the ACDP, COPE and Patriotic Alliance – turned up for work, saying it was business as usual.
It followed a dramatic council meeting on Monday where council speaker Jonathan Lawack was relieved of his duties when DA councillor Mbulelo Manyati abstained from voting against the no-confidence motion.
Later, the opposition rammed through the removal of Trollip and chief whip Werner Senekal in their absence at the session first presided over by an official from the Eastern Cape department of co-operative governance.
The DA believes the sitting was illegal and is thus preparing a legal challenge.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane said it was of the opinion that the council sitting was “procedurally invalid and lacked legitimate authority” to legally elect a new speaker, and then pass the motion of no confidence in Trollip.
It believes that co-operative governance and traditional affairs MEC Fikile Xasa erred by sending an official to preside over the election of the speaker while city boss Johann Mettler was available.
The Municipal Structures Act states: “The municipal manager of the municipality or, if the municipal manager is not available, a person designated by the MEC for local government in the province presides over the election of a speaker.”
Maimane said: “This was a mock council meeting that elected a mock government‚ and we are of the view that yesterday’s proceedings are invalid in law.
“We categorically denounce this move and call it out for what it was – a political coup by this coalition of corruption hellbent on re-establishing patronage networks that enrich the few at the expense of the many.”
Trollip said the DA hoped to get a declaratory order from the court, and that as far as he was concerned he was still mayor as he believed the meeting was illegal.
In a telephonic interview on Tuesday, Xasa said he was ready to fight any technicalities the DA planned to challenge regarding his seconded official.
Xasa said he had sent an official after the councillors told him that Mettler had “aban- doned” the council meeting.
Asked if he had spoken to Mettler, Xasa said: “I couldn’t locate him. I tried and tried, I couldn’t find him.
“We are ready to deal with all those clarities in court. Even those interpretations of the law.”
Meanwhile, the DA’s legal team was still preparing on Tuesday afternoon to lodge its court bid to have the council meeting declared illegal.
Attorney Lunen Meyer, who is representing the DA, said: “I have consulted with my client and counsel and we are contemplating the way forward.”
Asked about time frames, Meyer said he could not give any.
Outside City Hall, there were scenes of jubilation as supporters of the ANC, UDM and EFF sounded their hooters and waved their flags.
The corner of Baakens Street and John Kani Road came to a standstill as cars lined the streets and supporters chanted through loud-hailers.
ANC councillor Andile Lungisa, who was appointed mayoral committee member in charge of infrastructure and engineering by Bobani on Monday night, thanked ANC activists and members for their continued support.
“We are going to work and deliver services for the people of this metro,” he said.
Earlier in the day, as Bobani and his team sat inside the council chamber waiting for their meeting with Mettler, DA councillor Rano Kayser – who was appointed political head of economic development, tourism and agriculture last week – turned up for his scheduled committee meeting.
Kayser was adamant that his meeting would proceed as he believed the Monday night
‘We categorically denounce this move and call it out for what it was – a political coup’ Mmusi Maimane
DA LEADER
meeting was illegal.
ANC councillor Buyelwa Mafaya, who was elected the new speaker on Monday night, said she had decided to postpone the meeting, but Kayser was having none of it.
He asked Bobani and his team to leave the chamber, which they subsequently did.
Mafaya, however, said any decisions taken at the meeting would be rescinded.
“As the speaker, I communicate about meetings and I have communicated that meetings have been put on hold until we reschedule the meetings.
“I am the speaker of council – I am the only custodian that can call or cancel a meeting.”
Municipal officials appeared to be confused about whose instructions to follow, unsure whether Kayser’s meeting was legal or Mafaya’s instruction was the lawful one.
Mettler sent out a memorandum to the staff later in the day, saying that the new leadership had been elected at the meeting presided over by a Cogta official.
Mettler said councillors should be allowed to occupy their designated offices and that all processes relating to human resources would be effective from September 1.
Standing committee meetings as well as integrated development meetings would continue as normal.
Meanwhile, EFF leader Julius Malema, at a briefing in Johannesburg, questioned why the ANC had put Lungisa, who has an assault conviction hanging over his head, in the mayoral committee.
Malema said that just like the DA, the ANC was displaying its arrogance.
“Why would the ANC make Lungisa available for MMC when he’ll attract negativity to this new coalition?
“And why would he accept being MMC?” Malema asked.
“A person with a clear conscience would not make himself available.
“He would have said ‘guys let me clear my charges first’.
“He should have declined and saved everybody, including the EFF, from having to answer questions.
“The [ANC] should have said ‘please, Andile, we are in a process of self-correction’ [because] he has the potential to attract negativity to everyone.
“But then again, we’re talking about the arrogant bastards of the ANC,” he said.
I had never heard the name Mbulelo Manyati until I received a text from an ANC official in Calata House in October last year.
He was moaning that we had covered the fraud case involving ANC councillor Bhongo Nombimba, but ignored one involving DA councillor Manyati who appeared in the same court, on the same day, facing similar charges.
To be fair, at the time we had no knowledge of Manyati’s case until the ANC official tipped us off about it.
Manyati stands accused of colluding with his son and a Port Elizabeth doctor to claim an insurance policy taken out on someone who had already died.
He is due back in court in November.
And so, on Monday, the irony did not escape me when Manyati became the Trojan horse who flipped the script on the DA, effectively opening the door for the ANC to return to power in Mandela Bay – albeit jointly with other parties.
By now you know that Athol Trollip and the coalition government were voted out of power, in absentia, during a dramatic marathon meeting.
The UDM’s Mongameli Bobani was elected as mayor and he subsequently appointed his mayoral committee made up of a cast of characters who could be described as the palatable, the bad and the downright dangerous.
The DA is challenging the legality of the council meeting and its decisions, saying that it was procedurally flawed.
Bear with me, the detail matters here because it will determine the course of things going forward.
Earlier in the day, a motion was tabled by the opposition to remove council speaker Jonathan Lawack (DA).
Manyati abstained from voting, leaving the DA in the minority.
Lawack was then voted out.
As dictated by law, city manager Johann Mettler took charge to preside over the rest of the proceedings.
During a break, Manyati told reporters of his intention to resign from the DA – a cardinal sin interpreted by the party as a compelling basis for the termination of his membership.
When the meeting resumed, the DA told Mettler that Manyati was no longer a member of the party and therefore was no longer a councillor.
Mettler took legal advice from Advocate Albert Beyleveld who initially suggested that at face value the DA’s instant firing of Manyati was potentially sound.
Anticipating that Trollip was next on the chopping block, the DA and its partners walked out.
On this basis, Mettler then declared a vacancy and then adjourned the meeting, stating that there was no quorum.
He asked that the sitting be rescheduled for next week.
And then the wheels came off.
To the opposition, this meant that Mettler had abandoned the sitting.
So they called on “big brother” to step in.
Within hours, the MEC responsible for municipalities Fikile Xasa (ANC) then sent an official to preside over the meeting.
An ANC speaker was elected and the rest is history.
There are a number of important things to chew on here.
First, even if the DA is justified to regard Manyati as a traitor who should be expelled from its ranks, the point is in its desperation on the day it jumped the gun when it declared right there and then that he was no longer a member.
The Western Cape High Court judgment on the precedent-setting Patricia de Lille matter means that even if the DA invokes the cessation clause of its constitution, there was due process that had to be followed when expelling a member.
This did not happen in Manyati’s case. (Beyleveld’s subsequent advice to Mettler upon studying the De Lille judgment also highlighted this.)
This is perhaps why in his press briefing yesterday, DA leader Mmusi Maimane said the party was in the process of terminating Manyati’s membership – a slight backtrack from its initial stance.
Therefore if challenged, Mettler’s handling of the Manyati matter will in all likelihood be found wanting.
But even so, it may have no substantive impact on the events that later unfolded in the meeting.
You see, the law indeed allows Xasa to deploy an official to preside over a council meeting, but only if the city manager is unavailable.
Herein lies the crux of the DA’s legal case.
The party believes that Mettler’s adjournment of the meeting could not be interpreted as his unavailability, nor could it be technically regarded as a refusal to preside over the meeting as the opposition suggested.
On this basis, the DA believes that not only did the MEC err by sending the official, he deliberately abused his power and participated in what the DA termed a wellorchestrated political coup in our city.
Obviously the MEC, the UDM and its partners disagree, saying Xasa had every right to deploy an official, end of story.
This is where the courts will, hopefully, help us.
Their interpretation of the MEC’s actions will ultimately inform us who should legitimately wear that mayoral chain.
But that’s half the story. Of course we cannot predict with certainty what lies ahead in the coming days.
But here’s what we know – there will be no real winners in the unfolding barn fight of madness in which we find ourselves.
•Nwabisa Makunga is the Editor