Nelson Mandela Bay got its third mayor in less than a year on Friday after the Northern Alliance’s Gary van Niekerk was voted to become executive mayor of the metro after the DA-led council lost a motion of no confidence.

Van Niekerk’s own party, the Northern Alliance, has been beset by internal problems and Van Niekerk was suspended by a breakaway group and recalled as a councillor. This parallel structure is headed by a sitting councillor, Bevan Brown, who in turn was suspended by Van Niekerk’s alliance and is currently in court trying to get his job back.

Former mayor Eugene Johnson – whose term was so chaotic that the ANC leadership in the province attempted to put an end to it using words like “lawlessness and chaos” in a letter addressed to the municipality – was elected speaker of the metro, and Babalwa Lobishe, the ANC regional chairperson, was elected deputy mayor. The motions of no confidence in the previous administration under the DA’s Retief Odendaal were brought by the EFF.

The Eastern Cape provincial government has been threatening to change the structure of the metro to facilitate replacing the executive mayoral system with a different system of governance – one that would have a ceremonial mayor, with the city run by an executive committee elected by the city council and with ward committees dealing with local matters. Representation on these committees would be similar to party representation in the council.

It remains to be seen what the province’s Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Zolile Williams’s next step will now be as he had suspended these plans after litigation by Odendaal.

There are 12 political parties with seats in the current Nelson Mandela Bay city council. The ANC and the DA received roughly the same number of votes (around 40%) in the November 2021 local government elections. The EFF holds eight seats.

The African Independent Congress (AIC), Northern Alliance and Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) voted with the ANC and EFF on Friday.

‘Stability’

In his inaugural speech, Van Niekerk said he was hoping for political stability and an administration focused on the task at hand where residents would be of paramount importance. He said he wanted the municipality to implement alternatives to load shedding and also to focus on safety and security.

“It was out of pure frustration that I became involved in local politics when four boys were gunned down,” he said. He also promised to address service delivery backlogs. Van Niekerk said he and his coalition partners would soon devise a strategy for his term as mayor.

With Friday’s vote, the PAC, the Northern Alliance and the AIC broke their coalition agreement with the DA and its remaining partners – the Freedom Front Plus, UDM, ACDP, and Jack’s African Integrity Movement. 

Odendaal, who was a very popular mayor, received a hero’s welcome outside after he left the meeting.

“The removal of Executive Mayor, DA councillor Retief Odendaal, and his multi-party coalition government, has signalled a sad end to what has been one of the most positive and prosperous eight months in Nelson Mandela Bay in the last three decades,” the DA said following the council meeting.

The party referred to Van Niekerk as a “puppet mayor” and a “Judas” installed by the ANC and the EFF.

“The ANC and EFF will now have unlimited access to the city’s R18-billion budget and the ‘Judas’ Mayor Van Niekerk will dance to their tune, all for the sake of a shiny mayoral chain and a large salary,” the party said.

“The multi-party coalition managed to fix more than 20,000 potholes, 15,000 water leaks, 13,000 streetlights, approved 150 town planning amendments, and created nearly 5,000 EPWP [Expanded Public Works Programme] job opportunities – to name but a few. 

“Despite all of this progress, Van Niekerk’s greed and lust for prestige, has led to him selling the people of Nelson Mandela Bay out for thirty pieces of silver,” it said. DM