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CoGTA MEC must second official to preside over NMB council meeting to avoid legal challenges

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Dear MyPE

The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality will be opening itself up to legal action if its next council meeting is presided over by an invalid and unqualified acting City Manager, and if adjustments to the City’s budget are tabled by a self-styled “interim” Executive Mayor.

The next council meeting is set down for tomorrow, 2 October 2020, and is illogically taking place in virtual format – even though lockdown Level 1 allows for a full physical council meeting to take place in a venue such as the Feather Market Centre.

The Municipality does not currently have a validly appointed City Manager as the Chief Operations Officer (COO), Mr Mandla George, was appointed as acting City Manager by the self-styled “interim” Mayor, Cllr Thsonono Buyeye, and not by Council.

Mr George does not have the credentials or the competency to head up the administration and decisions made at any council meeting presided over by him, may be open to legal challenge.

The agenda for tomorrow’s council meeting includes many essential items, chief of which is the consideration of various adjustments to the City’s budget. The Municipality, therefore, cannot afford to make any procedural mistakes that can lead to legal challenges.

I have written to the Eastern Cape MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), Xolile Nqatha, and requested that he seconds a qualified member of his department to preside over the council meeting – to mitigate the possibility of legal challenges to any decisions taken by Council.

The Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) also clearly stipulates that only an elected Mayor can table a municipal budget to Council and preside over the budgeting process – there is no provision made for an “interim” Mayor.

Taking into account that National Treasury, on 3 June 2020, threatened, in terms of the Constitution, to withhold the equitable share payable to the Metro, the importance of the legitimacy of the adjustments budget cannot be stressed enough.

The tabling of adjustments to the budget in Council by the “interim” Mayor, Cllr Buyeye, is unlawful and will expose the Municipality to adverse risk.

I have also not received any feedback from the Speaker of Council, Cllr Buyelwa Mafaya, regarding her defying a High Court order and directives from the national and provincial departments of CoGTA by not placing the election of a Mayor on the agenda.

The DA will work tirelessly to turn this Metro around. We can fix this mess, we have done it before, and we will, together with the people of Nelson Mandela Bay, do it again.

Regards

Cllr Nqaba Bhanga
DA Eastern Cape Provincial Leader and NMB Mayoral Candidate

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