Party divisions could have cost DA outright win in Bay, Trollip admits
Ousted Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Athol Trollip has suggested for the first time that the DA could have received an outright majority in the highly contested municipality were it not for internal divisions.
The factions were allegedly led by then provincial chair Veliswa Mvenya.
Trollip‚ who lost his mayoral chain to the UDM’s Mongameli Bobani in September, claimed that Mvenya and some DA leaders in the Bay might have sabotaged the party when their preferred councillor candidate did not emerge high up on the party’s candidates’ list.
He was speaking on Monday at the Cape Town Press Club.
Trollip‚ who is now an ordinary councillor after two years as mayor‚ may be down but he insists he is not out.
He says he is a coelacanth. “I have been around for a long time in politics [but] I am not a political dinosaur; I regard myself as a coelacanth.
“It’s an interesting fish that has been around for a long‚ long time,” he said.
Sketching the build-up to the 2016 local government elections, Trollip spoke about how Mvenya “ganged up” with former DA MP Donald Lee because their preferred candidates for councillor positions were not high enough on the list – saying that this cost the DA an outright majority.
“I believe that if it was not for that internal competition‚ we might have gone closer to the magical 50% + 1,” he said.
“They [Mvenya and Lee] formed a coalition of the aggrieved because their members were not elected in positions.
“We saw people being manipulated and that was a very difficult time for us.
“This happens out of selfinterest‚ self importance. It also happens because the ANC induces people to do that.”
Trollip spoke about how ahead of every election DA members tended to defect to the ANC‚ adding that the three DA councillors who voted with the opposition to change the Nelson Mandela Bay government were evidence of this.
“We are going through that now. And why does it happen? Because we are the greatest threat to the ANC‚” he said.
Mvenya‚ who left the DA earlier this year‚ hit back, claiming that her differences with Trollip originated from the party’s 2014 provincial congress at which she was elected as provincial chair.
She said Trollip did not back her for the position‚ and when his choice, Edmund van Vuuren, lost‚ he and Van Vuuren vowed to punish the DA councillors who voted for her.
“Indeed, those people were excluded when the lists were announced‚” she said.
Mvenya said she questioned this “coincidence” at a provincial executive committee meeting and warned Trollip that he was starting factions in the DA.
She also claimed to have warned that this would cost the party‚ as these people had won wards from the ANC in 2011 and were being removed.
She later reported the matter to party leader Mmusi Maimane‚ she said.
“As far as I know‚ my sin is that I reported him to Mmusi after I fought for a principle.”
Mvenya claimed Lee and Trollip were enemies because Lee did not support Trollip when he stood to be the party’s parliamentary leader.
Turning to the Bobani matter‚ Trollip suggested that the man – who served as his deputy for months before the two fell out – was corrupt‚ took dirty money and insisted that illegal payments be made to companies who had not done any work for the municipality.
“It became clear around December 20 when Bobani said I should pay 10% commission to disbursing money in the controversial integrated public transport system contract.
“He insisted that we pay this R1.8m‚ but I refused.
“Since that day‚ Bobani started voting against us in council and sided with people who were being disciplined.”
Trollip said that despite several meetings and many letters to Bantu Holomisa about Bobani’s behaviour‚ the UDM leader “didn’t want to hear it”.
He alleged that both Holomisa and Bobani took “bad‚ dirty money” to run the August 2015 by-election which the UDM famously won by 49% from 4%‚ beating both the ANC and the DA.
‘I am not a political dinosaur; I regard myself as a coelacanth’
Athol Trollip
FORMER BAY MAYOR
Trollip described the cogovernance agreement that the coalition partners entered into after the 2016 local government as good‚ but said people broke almost every single one of its provisions with absolutely no consequences.
There were lessons to be learnt on coalitions, he said.
Holomisa acknowledged that Trollip has made this allegation about Bobani before.
“He never said I took money – he’s always said it’s Bobani who took money. He must publish the evidence,” he said.
He described Trollip as a farmer who was becoming too big for his boots.