Motion of no confidence in Nelson Mandela Bay mayor withdrawn

All motions against the current Nelson Mandela Bay executive, including the vote of no confidence against Trollip, were withdrawn on Thursday morning.

At the beginning of the council meeting speaker Jonathan Lawack said although he had declared the matter permanently adjourned at the last sitting, he had been petitioned by the ANC's Mbulelo Gidane to reconvene.

Lawack said another bone of contention at the previous sittings was the order in which the matters had been set down on the agenda. He said in order to expedite proceedings, he had agreed to change the order to allow the last item on the agenda, that of his removal, to be heard first.

The change was met with murmurs throughout council, but it soon became clear that it would be of no consequence.

In stark contrast to the rowdy and chaotic previous sitting, peace prevailed throughout the council chamber, as one by one the councillors who had tabled the motions withdrew them, citing the current and material circumstances.

The circumstances being referred to are the lack of support for the motions, as collectively the opposition only had 58 votes out of the 120 in council, because two ANC councillors - Andile Lungisa and Bongo Nombiba - are currently behind bars.

Lungisa began an effective two-year jail term on Wednesday for assaulting former member of the mayoral committee and DA councillor Rano Kayser, while Nombiba was handed a five-year prison sentence for fraud in April.

The DA were also supposed to be one member down, with undertaker-turned-DA-councillor Mbulelo Manyati supposed to appear in the Port Elizabeth Commercial Crimes Court on a charge of fraud.

However, Manyati was in council even though Magistrate Johannes Claassen had not granted his request for a postponement to allow him to attend council proceedings.

There was a light moment as Patriotic Alliance councillor Marlon Daniels was asked to table his motion, which was to remove the current mayoral committee members.

Many councillors chuckled, as Daniels was recently appointed as the mayoral committee member for transport following the PA joining the coalition.

His motion, if passed, would have effectively seen him removed.

Daniels said he had withdrawn the motion permanently, as the PA was committed to working with their alliance partners. DM