PORT ELIZABETH - NMB MAYOR SURVIVES ANOTHER VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE

Mongameli Bobani is to remain the mayor of the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality after the Patriotic Alliance deserted its motion of no confidence against him.

The nine-hour council meeting was marred by bickering, intimidation, profanity and accusations.

The PA's Marlon Daniels, who lodged a notice for the motion in February, backfooted and regrouped, finding himself back in the company of the former coalition arrangement which was led by the DA.

Staying by the ACDP's Lance Grootboom's side, the usually lone rider, Daniels, pulled out of the motion after a seemingly deliberate delayed caucus break, in which the DA and Cope caucused for three hours.

Daniels eventually made a brief return to the council chambers, collected his pile of documents and walked out, but not before joining the ACDP, Cope and DA for a media address.

In the notice Daniels filed, he stated that Bobani couldn't be "trusted" in office.

"Councillor Mongameli Bobani has done very little to none to the betterment of the lives of the poor communities," he said.

At the centre of the disagreements is an Urban Settlement Development Grant worth R200m that was deposited into the municipality reserves a few weeks ago.

Daniels said the grant benefit allocation did not include the northern areas.

"They are neglecting the northern areas; they are neglecting the coloured communities of the Nelson Mandela Bay," he said.

Numbers game

The numbers, however, did not favour Daniels' motion.

The DA was three councillors short, foiling their hopes of ousting Bobani.

Mbulelo Manyati, who made history for abstaining from voting in the crucial motion of no confidence against ousted executive mayor, Athol Trollip, did not attend the meeting, citing illness as a reason.

Two ward councillors, Trevor Louw and Neville Higgins, were declared illegal attendants of the last council meeting, by DA councillor Nqaba Bhanga.

Daniels lambasted the EFF and said they were not supposed to be in council on Thursday.

"They had strict orders from their leaders to stop attending meetings and focus on their campaign work."

"As soon as they heard that I am tabling a motion against Bobani, they dropped everything to come and protect him and his corruption," said Daniels.

Not worried

He said he was not worried about the failure of the motion.

"Many of these parties are not happy with him anyway, so we've agreed that we will remove him after the elections," he said.

Thursday's council was the last meeting before the scheduled recess to allow councillors to do their national duty of campaigning for their parties in their area.

While Bobani may have survived this time, he will have to prepare himself for the probability that another motion of no confidence will be tabled against him when council resumes on May 10.

News24 has reliably learnt that the EFF is planning to remove Bobani.

"We won't need another Patriotic Alliance-sponsored motion to remove him. We will do it ourselves," said a source.

"We don't want him in that position. He is unreliable," he added.

via - NEWS24