Nelson Mandela Bay DA returns to opposition benches

“We won. We won. We won,” Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Mongameli Bobani shouted out in jubilation after judge Elna Revelas dismissed the court application by the DA and its coalition partners ACDP and COPE who wanted the decisions taken at the controversial August 27 council meeting, which saw Athol Trollip removed as mayor, be set aside.

After Revelas read out the ruling and order, the gallery, made up of supporters of the various political parties, broke out into song people and ushered the new leadership toward the steps of the court where they were met by more supporters.

Meanwhile, Trollip said they would abide by the Port Elizabeth High Court’s decision and would return to the opposition benches, fighting corruption like they did before.

Trollip said he believed the judgment was based on a technicality regarding DA councillor Mbuelelo Manyati’s membership who “sold us out”.

“It’s quite extraordinary because he said he was leaving the DA and took it a step further and crossed the benches and sat in the benches of the ANC. As far as we’re concerned we’ve seen this treachery before, the floor crossing of people who are desperate to get into power, get hold of patronage and will do anything to get that.

“We made three commitments prior to the election that we would stop corruption, improve service delivery and grow the economy. I believe two of those we can still fulfil in the benches of the opposition, namely, stopping corruption.

We’ll expose it and secondly we’ll improve service delivery by holding those in power to account,” Trollip said.

Bobani said he joined the hundreds of thousands of residents who rejoiced around the metro on Thursday.

“This government is determined to serve the interests of all residents around. We love and like them and they love and like us.

“We’ve been saying since from the onset, as of the 27 of August, that there’s nothing wrong that we’ve done.

“Everything was done by the book. There was only one guy that was moving around saying he’s the mayor yet that guy is not even occupying City Hall.

“There’s only one mayor here, one speaker here and one chief whip here. We’ve known we’ve been legal for some time.

“Right now they must pay the money of the citizens and we’ll instruct the municipal manager to quickly ensure that we are getting the money of citizen they have wasted ,” Bobani said.

PA councillor, Marlon Daniels, whose party withdrew from the DA’s court application last week, said he had not joined the new coalition but he supported it.

“If we are going to join the new coalition going forward, it is something that has not yet been discussed between the Patriotic Alliance and the other parties. As the PA we’ve been through a bad patch with the passing of the brother of the deputy president the passing of the our president’s mother.

“We never had the time to get together to discuss the real way forward of Nelson Mandela as a party,” Daniels said.