The Nelson Mandela Bay Ratepayers Association has threatened a mass rates boycott in the city should mayor Athol Trollip be ousted through a motion of no confidence next month.
It believes that the EFF’s plan to teach the DA a lesson for not supporting its position on land expropriation would open the door for the ANC to claw its way back into power. Confident that a threat to withhold rates – which is against the law – would put enough pressure on the EFF to rethink its plan, Bay Ratepayers Association chairman Kobus Gerber said they could not simply fold their arms. The last time the ratepayers threatened to withhold rates was in 2013 when the council battled to appoint a permanent city manager for almost six years. “We are not going to allow the ANC to come back and loot the city, not with the likes of the EFF, which is a militant party. We can’t have that and we will not allow that in our city. “We are not going to take our hard-earned money and put it in the hands of these incompetent people who just looted money,” Gerber said. Gerber’s call comes in the midst of a standoff between the EFF and the DA, with tensions having escalated into a public spat between the top brass of the parties. It all stemmed from an announcement by EFF leader Julius Malema in parliament this week that as a “warning shot” to the DA for not supporting its stance on land expropriation without compensation, it would lead a bid to remove Trollip from office. Malema added in interviews with the media that it was gunning for Trollip – not because he stole money – but because they wanted to teach “these white people” a lesson that they meant business about land expropriation without compensation. The fiery situation has been heightened with the DA closing ranks around Trollip. A flurry of back-and-forth statements have been issued by the two parties, each of them standing their ground. On Thursday, the DA vowed to report Malema to the Equality Court for hate speech for saying, “[W]e are going to remove a mayor of PE . . . [w]e are going for your white man in PE. We are going to cut the throat”. Yesterday, EFF national spokesman Mbuyiseni Ndlozi responded that they were not deterred by the “misrepresentation” of Malema’s statement. “The DA knows that we used ‘throat-cutting’ as a figure of speech for unapologetically and unsympathetically removing Trollip to mirror their own unsympathetic attitude towards black land loss,” Ndlozi said.
Ndlozi said the term was a metaphor used to show their intention to cut any support the party previously offered the DA. “Because we have chosen to do this with Athol Trollip, the DA is escalating the fight so that all other mayors in Johannesburg and Tshwane can be removed,” Ndlozi said. For the EFF’s motion to succeed, Trollip’s detractors would need 61 votes. Out of a council of 120 seats, the DA with its coalition partners COPE and the ACDP have a combined 58 seats, while the ANC has 50, the EFF 6, the UDM 2 and the PA, AIC and United Front (UF) one seat each. The council also has one seat vacant to be filled after a by-election on Wednesday. While the smaller parties have said they would welcome the removal of Trollip, they also expressed concern at the possibility of putting the ANC back into power. Gerber, meanwhile, said his call for a mass rates boycott was aimed at reminding all political parties about what was important, which was ultimately the ratepayers. “If they continue with the motion of no confidence against Athol Trollip, who is a very hands-on mayor, we will submit disputes,” Gerber said. “This municipality is slowly but surely moving in the right direction but we can’t move in the right direction with this continuous interference from other political parties. “The politicians have forgotten that it is not about them, it is not about power but it is about the people they serve. “This power struggle should end, they should put the taxpayers who are paying their salaries first.” Asked if the DA would support a rates boycott, DA Eastern Cape leader Nqaba Bhanga said it would be illegal to do so. “We call on all residents who support good governance and service delivery to make their voices heard and to mobilise in support of progress made by the coalition government while respecting the rule of law,” Bhanga said. ANC Mandela Bay secretary Themba Xathula, meanwhile, said they enjoyed a cordial working relationship with the EFF and other opposition parties and saw no reason why it could not be elevated to form a coalition government in the city. “We wish to appeal to all parties, however, to give the ANC space and time to process these developments through our internal systems, to conduct negotiations with other political parties and thereafter present our candidate for the position of executive mayor, should that moment indeed arise,” Xathula said.