Plan to oust mayor Trollip abandoned
NELSON Mandela Bay mayor Athol Trollip yesterday survived yet another planned move to oust him after opposition parties abandoned their motion of no confidence and stormed out of the council.
This came after the Patriotic Alliance’s Marlon Daniels ditched the plan – the third of its kind – to remove Trollip and rekindle relations with the DA in exchange for keeping a seat in the mayoral committee.
The ANC, EFF, United Democratic Movement, United Front and the African Independent Congress (AIC) had filed motions of no confidence against the leadership of the DA-led Eastern Cape metro, including chairpersons of committees.
They accused the administration of failing the poor and black communities.
With 120 total seats in the council, the ANC has 50, EFF six, UDM two, with one each for the United Front and the AIC, and the parties could have secured the majority of 61 seats to remove Trollip had the Patriotic Alliance not withdrew from the plan.
The DA enjoys 57 seats, including the backing of Cope and the ACDP as coalition partners, and the support from the Patriotic Alliance would have resulted in a 50/50 deadlock, which could have been resolved by the DA Speaker.
Minutes after the council meeting sat, the opposition parties walked out of the chamber, complaining about the late delivery of the agenda for the sitting, forcing the sitting to be postponed.
DA provincial leader Nqaba Bhanga – also a councillor in the metro – branded the move as the ANC’s futile attempt to “steal” back the metro, which it used to control before it was dislodged in the 2016 local government elections.
“Although the motions on the agenda are set to be debated at the next council sitting, we are not perturbed. These motions will continue to fail as they don’t have the best interest of the people of NMB at heart,” Bhanga said.
He said the DA had worked hard to turn the metro around under Trollip.
“The ANC is only interested in returning to power to steal the city. With more than R2 billion in the bank, NMB is in its best financial position in years. The DA-led coalition is focused on service delivery and will not be derailed by outside influences seeking to hand the city back to the corrupt ANC,” Bhanga said.
The Patriotic Alliance’s decision to make a U-turn on the ousting of Trollip came after the EFF rejected Daniels’ candidature to become mayor, accusing the Patriotic Alliance of being a party of “unrepentant gangsters”.
“There are still ongoing discussions on an alternative candidate to replace the sitting mayor. Whatever these discussions, the EFF will not support any candidate from the Patriotic Alliance for the position of mayor, but we are willing to engage all other political parties,” the party earlier said.
Daniels apologised to Trollip for trying to collude with the opposition parties.
“We are really sorry for having caused that. We will not give them our support. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever again.” He, however, stressed that it was the Patriotic Alliance that had saved the DA from being dislodged from power in the metro.