Standing outside Gqeberha’s high court last week, when the priority should have been beach or braai, I was reminded of an African proverb that goes along the lines of “when elephants fight it is the grass that suffers”.

And I wondered if the battle between co-operative governance MEC Zolile Williams, who wants to institute an executive committee governance system, and current mayor Retief Odendaal, who is determined to keep the executive mayoral system, was exactly the fight of two elephants...