Publications
Partners
- The DA in the Eastern Cape is threatening to take Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Zolile Williams to court challenging his decision to scrap the mayoral executive system in favour of a collective executive one.
- The new system will disband the DA-led multiparty government and will grant the ANC four seats allowing it to have equal power to that of the DA.
- The system will see DA Mayor Retief Odendaal stripped of any decision-making powers.
Eastern Cape Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Zolile Williams has scrapped the mayoral executive system in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro after amending Section 12 of the Municipal Structures Act.
The move will pave the way for a collective executive system that would take powers away from the mayor and allow for a new committee to run things.
Under the new system, parties with a majority of seats, in this case the DA and ANC, will work together and have equal powers on the executive committee.
The system will see DA Mayor Retief Odendaal stripped of decision-making powers.
Williams' spokesperson, Pheelo Oliphant, confirmed the MEC promulgated "the change of the municipal type of Nelson Mandela Bay Metro council from the executive mayoral system and ward participatory-based model to the collective executive committee system", on 1 December.
READ | New Nelson Mandela Bay mayor fights provincial govt's plans to alter mayoral executive system
The DA, which has always seen the move as a bid by the ANC to pull the rug from under the recently elected DA-led Nelson Mandela Bay council, is threatening to challenge the amendment in court.
Asked to respond to the threat, Oliphant said: "We will meet in court."
DA Eastern Cape leader Nqaba Bhanga described the move as a desperate attempt by the ANC to steal back power in Nelson Mandela Bay.
"This farce must be condemned in the harshest possible terms. This has nothing to do with service delivery and everything to do with a dying organisation, desperately trying to cling to power so it can continue to loot state resources," charged Bhanga.
READ | Nelson Mandela Bay mayor ousted via motion of no confidence
The Section 12 amendment was shot down by the Nelson Mandela Bay council in August this year before Odendaal declared an intergovernmental dispute regarding his intentions to oppose the system in September.
"Williams has clearly forgotten that he is not a law unto himself. There are laws and procedures that must be adhered to. He cannot declare whatever he wants without following due process."
Bhanga, who added he failed to understand the changes, said in just a few short months, with the multiparty coalition at the helm, a remarkable change had occurred in Nelson Mandela Bay.
"Streetlights are being repaired, potholes have been filled, and street markings are being painted, to name but a few.
"The DA wants to make it clear, we will not allow Nelson Mandela Bay to be stolen without a fight. The DA supports the City's intention to go to court to fight this blatantly illegal attempt by the ANC to capture City Hall," said Bhanga.
READ | Day Zero: Combined 11% left in Nelson Mandela Bay storage dams, but water consumption remains high
The new system also means the metro's newly elected chief whip, Bill Harrington, and council speaker Gary van Niekerk could be out of a job as under the ward participatory governance, only the mayor and deputy mayor will feature in the new 10-member executive committee that would govern the city.
The collective executive system was proposed by then-cooperative governance and traditional affairs MEC Xolile Nqatha in a meeting with councillors in August to address the dysfunctionality of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro under an ANC-led coalition at the time.
The ANC Eastern Cape did not comment.
Its comments will be added once received.
