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!
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