Move against Mettler today?
The Nelson Mandela Bay council will attempt to hold a meeting today which could decide on the fate of city manager Johann Mettler.
It all depends on whether the ANC, EFF, UDM, United Front and AIC are able to muster up a quorum to legally continue with their voluminous council agenda.
The parties need 61 councillors present in the chamber for the meeting to be able to sit.
The DA and its coalition partners ACDP, COPE and the Patriotic Alliance, said they would not be attending the meeting because they regard speaker Buyelwa Mafaya – who sent out the invitation – as illegitimate.
But former DA councillor Mbulelo Manyati on Thursday said he would be attending the meeting as he believed he was still a councillor.
Complicating matters is that the DA replaced Manyati with a new recruit, Lutho Sokudela, 23, on Thursday.
He was sworn in by Mettler. Manyati assisted the UDM, ANC, EFF, AIC and United Front in removing speaker Jonathan Lawack by abstaining from voting at last week’s dramatic council meeting.
Manyati’s attorney, Eric Mabuza, said they would challenge his replacement.
He said Manyati was still fighting the DA’s decision to terminate his membership.
Mettler said he had declared a vacancy with the Independent Electoral Commission.
“My declaration was based on legal advice that I obtained. I also had interaction with the DA to satisfy myself with regards to the process that they followed,” Mettler said.
DA federal council chair James Selfe said the federal legal commission had invited Manyati to appear before the commission.
However, he did not pitch at 1pm on August 29 – two days after the Monday council meeting.
“As far as we are concerned we have followed our own processes and Mr Manyati’s membership ceased,” Selfe said.
“We are confident that if Mr Manyati wishes to bring a challenge we will be able to successfully resist it,” Selfe said.
Mabuza said they received the invitation too late and Manyati thus could not attend.
He has since written to the DA, saying their actions were “fundamentally legally flawed”.
The IEC said on Thursday afternoon that the vacancy had been declared and Manyati’s position had since been filled.
IEC provincial electoral officer Khayakazi Magudumana said an appointment letter had been sent to Mettler.
“The councillor [Manyati] is no longer a councillor as the vacancy has been filled,” Magudumana said.
Attempts to reach Mafaya were unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, one of the items on the council agenda to be discussed today – should the meeting proceed – is a motion against Mettler by mayor Mongameli Bobani, who has accused the city manager of serious misconduct.
Bobani submitted the motion while he was still an ordinary councillor.
His accusations range from claims that Mettler unlawfully extended the contract of communications firm Mohlaleng Media, to allegations that he irregularly hired and suspended senior staff and misappropriated municipal funds on the city’s new accounting system.
Bobani wants Mettler suspended while his allegations are probed through a forensic investigation.