COALITION OF NO CONFIDENCE: The ship is sinking: Calls grow for Nelson Mandela Bay mayor to step down

Abantu Integrity Movement councillor Khusta Jack, who recently broke away from Nelson Mandela Bay’s ANC-led coalition government, has given Mayor Babalwa Lobishe 48 hours to resign or face a petition to national Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa to place the metro under administration.The ultimatum comes as infighting tears through the coalition, with Lobishe and her deputy Gary van Niekerk facing separate no-confidence motions over, respectively, service delivery failures and alleged misconduct.On Tuesday, Van Niekerk said the mayor told officials last week that no one should take instructions from him and that his calls should not be answered. Lobishe, on the other hand, said that Van Niekerk, of the National Alliance (NA), had failed to undertake any work delegated to him.She said in terms of the Municipal Structures Act, the deputy mayor could act only in the absence of the mayor — “So I’m here, what is his issue?” Lobishe said, adding that it was not in her power to strip van Niekerk of his position as he had been appointed by the council. At a council meeting on Tuesday, Van Niekerk abandoned his usual front-row seat next to Lobishe and opted to sit at the back next to Khusta Jack, who resigned from the coalition in May.The ANC, with 47 seats, is in a coalition with the Economic Freedom Fighters (7), NA (3), Defenders of the People (2), Pan Africanist Congress (1) and African Independent Congress (1), with additional voting support from the United Democratic Movement (1). Together, the coalition partners hold 62 of the council’s 120 seats.A motion of exigency seeking Van Niekerk’s removal that was submitted by ANC councillor Luyanda Lawu was expected to be presented to council on Tuesday.However, council speaker Eugene Johnson did not table the motion and did not answer questions about when it would be tabled.An ordinary motion against Lobishe was submitted by Good party councillor Lawrence Troon, citing leadership failures that he said had plunged the city into a service delivery crisis.The motion against Lobishe is expected to be tabled at a council meeting on 6 August to allow for the 10 days required before a motion is tabled in the next council.When asked after the council meeting why the motion against Van Niekerk had not been presented, Johnson said she was still to decide on this.Nelson Mandela Bay speaker Eugene Johnson. (Photo: Deon Ferreira) “When we spoke the other day, I had not checked the content of the motion and applied my mind. Motions of exigency are tabled at council and not prior [to it]. “In his motion, councillor Lawu mentions the ongoing court matter involving the deputy mayor, and that matter is not new; it’s been there for about two years now, so there’s nothing urgent about it. I will decide when it will be tabled because we still need to discuss the matter in the government of local unity, as the motion came from one of us in the coalition.”Tired of the instability in the metro, anti-apartheid activist Jack wrote to Lobishe, lamenting her failure to lead the City and to deliver adequate services. He called for her to step down.“Lobishe has by all metrics failed to lead the metro out of the worst service delivery crisis it has experienced in many years. If the mayor should decide not to heed our call to resign, then AIM will be left with no option but to petition the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister to invoke Section 139 of the Constitution and place the metro under administration with immediate effect.”Jack said that under Lobishe’s watch, the municipality was collapsing rapidly, both administratively and politically.AIM founder and anti-apartheid activist Khusta Jack “Her current ugly public spat with Deputy Mayor Gary van Niekerk is the last straw. It is unbecoming of the leadership of the largest municipality in the province that the mayor and her deputy are not on speaking terms, because they are quarrelling over whose photo should be on which municipal communication and marketing materials.”Jack said such “silly political vanity” could not be tolerated when most traffic and streetlights were not working, and raw sewage flowing down potholed roads had become a common sight.He said there were zero prospects of a recovery while Lobishe was at the helm, because of her flawed leadership style.“The time for warnings is over. The ship is sinking. Drastic action is required today to ease the suffering of the residents of Nelson Mandela Bay.”An ANC insider who spoke on the sidelines of council said Lawu and four other ANC councillors who supported the motion against Van Niekerk were “a rogue group” that did not have a mandate from the party.“Also, matters of this nature are discussed at government of local unity (GLU) level, which usually would convene before a scheduled council meeting. But this did not happen. So we don’t know where they got their mandate from. They are just wedge drivers who want to further destabilise the already fractured coalition.”Van Niekerk said he always knew that the motion against him was incompetent.He added that Lobishe gave an instruction to officials last week that rendered him useless.Deputy Mayor Gary van Niekerk dodges a no confidence motion, but stripped of duties (Photo: Gallo Images / Die Burger / Lulama Zenzile) “Last week Wednesday, during the mayoral committee meeting, the mayor issued an instruction in front of all executive directors and members of the mayoral committee that no one must take instructions from me, and that they must not even take my calls,” Van Niekerk said.“So what does that make me? Am I just a councillor or a deputy mayor that has been made redundant? That is why I refused to sit next to her at council today.“I personally can’t continue like this; there need to be GLU engagements, and that’s why most items were shelved for the next council meeting so we can engage as coalition partners.”Van Niekerk said his party councillors could not be expected to remain in the coalition when some within the government were trying to get rid of him.Van Niekerk’s office is responsible for overseeing the Mandela Bay Development Agency, the legal department and communications.Lawu filed the notice of motion against Van Niekerk, noting that he faced charges of cyberfraud and Municipal Finance Management Act violations over a 2022 legal bill exceeding R550,000, which the State alleged was fraudulently incurred after Van Niekerk appointed two law firms when his position as speaker was up in the air.Lawu said the manner in which the matter relating to his motion was dealt with by speaker Johnson was disappointing.ANC councillor and Nelson Mandela Bay political head for safety and security Luyanda Lawu. (Photo: Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality) “I’m especially disappointed that she did not respond as to exactly when the motion will be tabled, yet her office confirmed in writing that the motion fell off for this particular council meeting and therefore it will serve in the meeting of 6 August. We will continue with it because it’s a very important matter and the speaker will have no choice but to allow it to be presented because the [required] 10 days will have passed.”Eastern Cape Cogta MEC Zolile Williams confirmed that Lobishe had no authority to unilaterally strip the deputy mayor of his powers, emphasising that Van Niekerk was appointed by council. “Therefore, any decision affecting the deputy mayor requires the entire council to be consulted through a council resolution. The motion which seeks to remove the deputy mayor does not augur well for stable government and service delivery.”Asked who would conduct Van Niekerk’s duties, Lobishe said: “Has he submitted any report to council? We’ve been waiting for over a year, and he has failed to do the functions delegated to him. International relations is with his office. He was meant to convene a workshop for the institution to identify destinations linked to our vision and mission, and he has failed to do that.”“I can take a report to council and propose to take those duties away, because he is failing at his delegated functions, but wants to … do the daily work of a member of the mayoral committee.” DM