South African main opposition party Democratic Alliance Port Elizabeth mayor Athol Trollip addresses his supporters as they demonstrate in front of the city hall at a rally in his support on the eve of a motion of no confidence on March 28, 2018 in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. (MICHAEL SHEEHAN/AFP/Getty Images)
South African main opposition party Democratic Alliance Port Elizabeth mayor Athol Trollip addresses his supporters as they demonstrate in front of the city hall at a rally in his support on the eve of a motion of no confidence on March 28, 2018 in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. (MICHAEL SHEEHAN/AFP/Getty Images)
The Nelson Mandela Bay Council convened to try and finally resolve the matter of Athol Trollip’s future on Tuesday. However, the meeting collapsed for the second time in two weeks and has been permanently adjourned.
The meeting comes just 12 days after the first attempt to hold the vote was abandoned, due to unruly behaviour and outright anarchy in the chambers. Disagreements boiled over into physical altercations, whereas some politicians behaved like kids.
Speaker Jonathan Lawack chose to shut the session down and reschedule it for Tuesday 10 April. On Tuesday morning, the early stages of discussions saw shouting matches and frequent disruptions from opposition parties.
The opposition in the Nelson Mandela Bay council is deliberately destructive and can only be described as disgraceful. They refused to allow the DA cllr Nqaba Bhanga to pay tribute to Mama Winnie Mandela. What kind of Democracy do we have under this behavior.
— Athol Trollip (@AtholT) April 10, 2018
Why is Athol Trollip facing no confidence?
Trollip was facing the vote due to a motion brought forward by the EFF. Although, it’s thinly-veiled politicking at its finest. The party targeted the DA mayor because he and his party are strictly opposed to implementing land expropriation without compensation, and only support land reform.
The red berets have made this a rather nasty affair. Certainly, Julius Malema was pushing all the boundaries when he said this was to “slit the throat of whiteness”. It’s a rather dramatic turnaround, given that the EFF kept Trollip in power in November 2017.
The coalition that holds up the NMB is fragile, at best. That’s another reason the party are gunning for him; the balance of power is based on razor thin margins, and it is completely plausible a no confidence motion could have succeeded.
However, Lawack was forced yet again to bring the session to a halt. The vote has now been permanently adjourned and it seems this matter won’t be resolved any time soon. Trollip remains the Mayor of the Eastern Cape metro.
