PORT ELIZABETH, SOUTH AFRICA – FEBRUARY 27: Democratic Alliance Federal Chairperson Athol Trollip during an interview with City Press on February 27, 2016 in Port Elizabeth. Gallo Images / City Press / Leon Sadik
PORT ELIZABETH, SOUTH AFRICA – FEBRUARY 27: Democratic Alliance Federal Chairperson Athol Trollip during an interview with City Press on February 27, 2016 in Port Elizabeth. Gallo Images / City Press / Leon Sadik
Athol Trollip has lost his legal battle to remain the NMB Mayor, after a court ruled in favour of Mongameli Bobani and dismissed the DA’s application with costs.
Bobani, an elected representative of the UDM, will now lead the metro after months of turmoil. Trollip had faced five motions of no confidence before he was eventually ousted, in a municipality that remains deeply divided and delicately balanced.
Here’s how it all panned out…
How Athol Trollip lost his role as NMB Mayor
The dramatic reversal in fortunes came after Jonathan Lawack lost his bid to remain as the Speaker of the Chamber in Port Elizabeth. Usually backed by every member of the DA and their razor-thin coalition majority, all it took was one show of abstinence to boot Lawack from his position.
Victor Manyati turned up to the council meeting declaring that he would be leaving the DA, and refused to side with them in Monday’s vote. This spelt disaster for Trollip, knowing that as things were previously balanced, he could not be ousted as mayor.
However, Manyati’s decision to play kingmaker was telling. Just as the opposition forces of the EFF, ANC and UDM managed to oust Lawack by 60 votes to 59, they put Athol Trollip to the sword again.
The DA left the chamber shortly after they confirmed Manyati had his party membership terminated, believing that a motion of no confidence couldn’t happen without a full complement of representatives. However, ANC councillor Buyelwa Mafaya – who replaced Lawack shortly after – proceeded with the vote.
The UDM’s Mongameli Bobani was elected as mayor in place of Trollip. The pair had famously fallen out after Bobani repeatedly broke ranks when they were in coalition with the DA. Bobani, who was fired as Trollip’s deputy mayor, seems to have come full circle here.
The balance of power is so fragile in NMB, that single vote – or lack, thereof – was all it took to topple the mayor.
How many seats does each party have in Nelson Mandela Bay?
- Democratic Alliance: 57
- African National Congress: 50
- Economic Freedom Fighters: 6
- United Democratic Movement: 2
- African Independent Congress: 1
- United Front of the Eastern Cape: 1
- Congress of the People (COPE): 1
- African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP): 1
- Patriotic Alliance (PA): 1
There are 120 seats in the regional Parliament, but no party holds an outright majority. The DA has had to rely on the support of smaller parties to prop-up their governance.
During the last vote of no confidence that actually made it to the ballot, Cope, PA and ACDP all sided with the Democratic Alliance. This gave the ruling majority party enough votes to stave off the threat of the opposition securing a majority, finishing 60-60.
However, Trollip’s survival has relied on everyone in his party pulling in the same direction. This has somewhat blindsided the party, who would’ve expected a coalition partner to flip before on of their own.
Why did Victor Manyati go against the DA?
It isn’t clear where his political future lies, but Manyati is citing “racism” for his reasons to step aside. As HeraldLive report, he was upset with the “ill-treatment of black councillors”.
Manyati said he was planning to leave the DA due to the “ill treatment of black councillors”. With Manyati’s support, the numbers are now tipped in the opposition’s favour. #NMBCouncilVote
— Rochelle de Kock (@rochelledekock) August 27, 2018
DA councillor Mbulelo Manyati says he will not be voting with the DA today. Manyati abstained from an earlier vote, resulting in speaker #JonathanLawak being removed from his position. #NMBCouncil #NMBCouncilVote
???? @Nazi_Buso pic.twitter.com/UPvxNEkRGt— HeraldLIVE (@HeraldPE) August 27, 2018
Don’t expect this issue to be completely dead and buried, however. The DA have made it clear they will keep fighting this issue and an appeal is expected to be lodged in due course against the NMB Mayor.
The @Our_DA & @AtholT have worked tirelessly, worked to deliver services to people of NMB. This municipality now has a bus service, a metro police, increase in investment for jobs, decrease in buckets. Today is the start of the reversal. We shall continue to fight for the people
— Mmusi Maimane (@MmusiMaimane) August 27, 2018
