While the DA was gearing up for a legal battle over a council decision to oust Athol Trollip as mayor, newly elected Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Mongameli Bobani settled into his new office on Tuesday.
Bobani spun around gleefully in his new chair and held his first mayoral caucus meeting in the office.
“This is a very nice chair,” he said at about 3pm, after the office had been cleared of all traces of Trollip.

But as Bobani celebrated, there was confusion over who, in fact, was mayor, with both Trollip and Bobani adamant that they were.
The Port Elizabeth City Hall was a hive of activity as the ANC and UDM celebrated with their supporters while the DA and its coalition partners – the ACDP, COPE and Patriotic Alliance – turned up for work, saying it was business as usual.
It followed a dramatic council meeting on Monday where council speaker Jonathan Lawack was relieved of his duties when DA councillor Mbulelo Manyati abstained from voting against the no-confidence motion.
Later, the opposition rammed through the removal of Trollip and chief whip Werner Senekal in their absence at the session first presided over by an official from the Eastern Cape department of co-operative governance.
The DA believes the sitting was illegal and is thus preparing a legal challenge.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane said it was of the opinion that the council sitting was “procedurally invalid and lacked legitimate authority” to legally elect a new speaker, and then pass the motion of no confidence in Trollip.
It believes that co-operative governance and traditional affairs MEC Fikile Xasa erred by sending an official to preside over the election of the speaker while city boss Johann Mettler was available.
The Municipal Structures Act states: “The municipal manager of the municipality or, if the municipal manager is not available, a person designated by the MEC for local government in the province presides over the election of a speaker.”
Maimane said: “This was a mock council meeting that elected a mock government‚ and we are of the view that yesterday’s proceedings are invalid in law.
“We categorically denounce this move and call it out for what it was – a political coup by this coalition of corruption hellbent on re-establishing patronage networks that enrich the few at the expense of the many.”
Trollip said the DA hoped to get a declaratory order from the court, and that as far as he was concerned he was still mayor as he believed the meeting was illegal...