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On Nqaba Bhanga’s “short lived tenure as Mayor”

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CoGTA MEC does not have the power to declare election of NMB Mayor invalid, must go to court

Dear MyPE

The letter by the Eastern Cape MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) to the office of the Speaker regarding last week’s Nelson Mandela Bay council meeting, is devoid of any truth and in extreme bad faith.

In it, MEC Xolile Nqatha states the election of an Acting Speaker and, therefore, the election of a Mayor at last week’s Nelson Mandela Bay special council meeting, was unlawful and therefore null and void. This could not be further from the truth.

The Acting City Manager, Mandla George called for nominations for the election of an Acting Speaker while still in the council chamber, which then resulted in the nomination of Cllr Marlon Daniels, which was also seconded.

This is just another example of how the ANC will make use of any and all dirty tricks at their disposal in a desperate attempt to cling to power and comes as no surprise to the Democratic Alliance.

It must also be noted that these proceedings followed after the ANC bared its true colours in a show of absolute tyranny, when the Speaker, ANC councillor Buyelwa Mafaya, staged her own “kidnapping” from the council chamber in City Hall in order to collapse the meeting.

Cllr Mafaya was clearly removed from the chamber by her own bodyguards.

An official from CoGTA was also virtually logged on to the council proceedings throughout.

The elections of the Mayor and Acting Speaker were administrative actions and cannot be overturned based on the say-so of the MEC.

If MEC Nqatha believes the process to be flawed, he must approach the courts to request a judicial review. MEC Nqatha sat on his hands for a full year and did nothing while our Metro was in crisis. Now that a DA Mayor has been elected the MEC rushes in exposing his partisanship and his lack of understanding of the law.

The DA has no doubt that the election of Executive Mayor Nqaba Bhanga was legitimate and that all necessary processes were followed to elect an Acting Speaker to preside over the council meeting.

The DA, along with its coalition partners, will not be deterred from fixing the mess left by the previous government, and is committed to working with the residents of this city to take Nelson Mandela Bay forward again!

Regards

Andrew Whitfield, MP
DA Eastern Cape Provincial Chairperson

MORE:

Nqaba Bhanga said that he remained the mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB) despite a letter from the provincial Cooperative Governance MEC Xolile Nqatha declaring his election into the post as invalid.

Bhanga, who accused Nqatha of attempting to interfere with local government, argued that the MEC had no jurisdiction over the municipality and that he could not nullify council processes and decisions.

He said that if Nqatha thought there was an error, he should seek a judicial review.

“He must not waste the paper of the provincial government. He’s supposed to go and run to court and explain why he believes that the council meeting of Nelson Mandela Bay was not properly constituted,” Bhanga said.

In a letter to Nelson Mandela Bay Speaker Buyelwa Mafaya, dated 8 December, Nqatha said the department received a report from acting city manager Anele Qaba on the council sitting on Friday that led to Bhanga’s election. “According to the report, it clearly shows that the election of the acting speaker by councillors to preside over the election of an Executive Mayor was done in contravention of [the] terms of section 36 (3) of [the] Local Government: Municipal Structures Act, 1998. Neither the acting city manager nor a person designated by the MEC presided over the election of the acting speaker on 4 December. The election of the acting speaker was therefore wrongful, unlawful and null and void,” he said.

Regional task team coordinator Luyolo Nqakula said the ANC has called for the reconvening of council to re-elect a mayor.

“Equally we wish to reject the purported election of Bhanga as a mayor. The council decorum was undermined and compromised and resulted in the abortion of the meeting legally, procedurally and in line with the council rules of order. The desperation of the DA and its allies to declare Bhanga as an executive mayor under purported acting speaker Daniels is not only flawed and unlawful as it is not in line with the Municipal Structures Act 117 of 1998 (36) (3).

“However, we understand the thirst of the DA to taste power and cling to it even if it means that it will employ scrupulous (sic) means as to gain access to resources and reverse the achievements of our movement,” Nqakula said.

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