Fresh petition submitted to oust Bay mayor
Three coalition partners in the Nelson Mandela Bay municipal government have supported a petition for a council meeting to be convened to remove mayor Retief Odendaal from office.
The three parties the Northern Alliance (NA), PAC and African Independent Congress (AIC) have bolstered the opposition’s efforts to have Odendaal ousted, signing the petition for a meeting to be held on May 26.
The new petition was signed by 62 of the council’s 120 councillors and was delivered to the speaker’s office yesterday.
This is the opposition’s second bite of the cherry after council speaker and NA leader Gary van Niekerk had to cancel Monday’s council meeting at the eleventh hour due to a court challenge brought by Odendaal.
The mayor had challenged the validity of the previous petition submitted because the motion had not been signed or seconded by any of the councillors.
The latest petition, seen by The Herald, is signed by the EFF, ANC and Patriotic Alliance (PA), in addition to the three coalition party signatories.
The breakdown of the signatories is as follows: Northern Alliance (2), EFF (8), ANC (48),
PA (2), PAC (1) and AIC (1).
The petition, which is attached to a motion of no confidence, also calls for the removal of deputy mayor Khusta Jack, council chief whip Bill Harington and Van Niekerk as speaker.
The motion was signed by EFF councillor Khanya Nqisha and seconded by the ANC’s Yoliswa Pali.
The NA was the first party to break ranks with the coalition and it leader, Van Niekerk, said he was confident the motion would carry.
“We were always confident the same 62 will sign again. It is democracy at work,” Van Niekerk said.
He said the party was determined to form a new government.
“As the NA we feel hard done by about how things have happened with the current coalition.”
He claimed the DA was not focused on delivering services to the northern areas and townships.
Earlier this week, the PAC, which had signed the first petition, said it had erred in doing so because the party’s national leadership had not, at the time, been fully apprised of the political dynamics on a council and regional level.
PAC councillor Bassie Kamana declined to comment yesterday afternoon while the party’s national spokesperson, Sondisa Magajane, could not be reached for comment.
DA provincial leader Andrew Whitfield said in a statement that the party was disappointed that some of its partners had decided to jump ship.
“However, the DA is prepared to continue to negotiate, and we will keep our door open.
“We believe that sanity will prevail and that this motion of no confidence will fail, because we believe that the majority of councillors in Nelson Mandela Bay know that mayor Odendaal and his team are doing good work, and that this good work must continue,” Whitfield said.
AIC councillor Thsonono Buyeye could also not be reached for comment.
Odendaal lodged an urgent application with the high court on Monday, arguing that the original motion was not compliant because the councillors did not follow proper procedures when submitting it.
But after the cancellation of Monday’s meeting, the court ruled the matter was no longer urgent.
Judgment is expected to be delivered today.